Legislation passed during the 2004 Legislative Session created the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS). Your organization will need to ensure your payroll and retirement reporting systems can accurately report members who are eligible for PSERS beginning July 1, 2006. Information on PSERS membership is contained in the heading below titled, Eligibility.
The following information should be distributed to all staff and/or organizations responsible for making the necessary system(s) and procedural changes. Please update your payroll information systems and business processes to ensure PSERS member data is accurately reported to DRS.
City - 60
County - 61
Department of Corrections State Agency
Corrections officers - 62
Corrections sergeants - 62
Community Corrections officers - 63
Other State Agencies - 64
Statewide Elected or Governor Appointed Officials - 65
State Agencies in addition to Corrections that are PSERS employers include:
If you submit electronic files, you are encouraged to send test files to DRS as soon as possible. We would like to receive test files prior to June. This will help ensure a smooth transition and supports everyone’s goal of timely and accurate reporting.
Please contact us as soon as you are ready to send a test file. This will allow us to review our expectations with you, answer your questions and discuss the order of events when processing test files.
Top of PageDRS will provide training workshops for PSERS employers a few months prior to July 2006. The training dates and sign-up process will be available online in early spring.
The Office of the State Actuary is responsible for determining the contribution rates for PSERS. We expect the PSERS rates to be available in April 2006, and will communicate the rates to you as soon as they are finalized.
The Select Committee on Pension Policy is reviewing the criteria for determining PSERS eligibility. The committee may submit amendments to the PSERS statutes during the 2006 Legislative Session. We do not anticipate the technical requirements listed above being affected by any changes to eligibility. We will communicate any changes to the eligibility statutes with you as soon as they become known. PSERS eligibility is currently open to employees in the following job classifications within the employer categories listed below:
Please direct your employees who have questions regarding PSERS to the Member section of our web site for the most current PSERS information.
If you have any questions regarding this DRS Notice, please contact Employer Support Services at (360) 664-7200, option 2, or 1-800-547-6657, option 6, option 2; or email us.
Cathy Cale
Assistant Director of Administrative Services