Legislative Change TSERS effective 10-01-06

The Human Resources Department has been notified by the Teachers and State Employee Retirement System and UNC General Administration that employees hired on or after October 1, 2006 will be subject to new retirement system and health insurance rules. This recent legislative change does not impact employees hired prior to October 1, 2006.

Changes are as follows:

Employees first hired on or after October 1, 2006, who retire with 5 but less than 10 years of retirement service credit, will be eligible for State Health Plan coverage by paying the full premium.
Employees first hired on or after October 1, 2006, who retire with 10 but less than 20 years of retirement service credit, will have to pay 50% of the individual coverage premiums under the regular State insured plan.
Employees first hired on or after October 1, 2006, who retire with 20 or more years of retirement service credit, will have the total amount of their regular State insured plan individual coverage premiums paid by the State.

The below table summarizes retiree health insurance eligibility and cost based on this new legislation.

Date First Hired(**)	Years of Service	Employer Contribution to Retiree Health Insurance Cost(*)	Retiree Health Insurance Cost(*)
Prior to 10/1/06	More than 5 years	100%	none
10/1/06 or after	5 to 10 years	none	100%
10/1/06 or after	10 to 20 years	50%	50%
10/1/06 or after	20 years or more	100%	none

(*) Retiree Only coverage – Retiree is responsible for the cost of any dependent coverage.

(**) Date first hired refers to the date the employee first began contributing to the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System or to the UNC Optional Retirement Program (ORP), provided they did not separate from state service and withdraw contributions.

Please feel free to contact Lisa Honeycutt at lkhoneyc@unca.edu if you have questions or concerns

Legistative Chance TSERS Effective October 1, 2006