Public Act 147 of 2023 FAQs

You may return to work at a reporting unit in any position — either directly or indirectly — with no earnings limit and no effect on your pension or insurance premium subsidy if you have a bona fide termination and you’ve been retired at least six consecutive months.

You may return to work at a reporting unit — either directly or indirectly — with no effect on your pension or insurance premium subsidy if:

• You have a bona fide termination, which includes not working in the month of your retirement effective date, and
• You don’t earn more than $15,100 in a calendar year as a retiree from your public school employment.

If you retired as a superintendent, see the next question. These rules will be in effect until Oct. 10, 2028.

Retired superintendents may return to work — either directly or indirectly — with no effect on their pension or insurance premium subsidy if:

• They have a bona fide termination.
• They return to work in a position other than superintendent.
• They don’t earn more than $15,100 in a calendar year as a retiree from their public school employment.

OR

• They have a bona fide termination.
• They’ve been retired six consecutive months before becoming employed at a reporting unit.

These rules will be in effect until Oct. 10, 2028.

The earnings limit of $15,100 in a calendar year is based on your gross earnings from your public school employment as a retiree.

You will temporarily forfeit your pension and insurance premium subsidy until you terminate your public school employment.

You will temporarily forfeit your pension and insurance premium subsidy until you terminate your public school employment. The Michigan Office of Retirement Services (ORS) would be able to reinstate your pension and insurance subsidy on the first of the month following your termination of employment. Note: When you terminate employment, the six months clock will start over.

Directly means you were hired directly by the school. Indirectly means you were hired through a third party or as an independent contractor.

The six months begins from your retirement effective date. However, if you return to work at a reporting unit before you've been retired six consecutive months and you exceed the earnings limit, the six consecutive months clock will start over when you terminate your employment as a retiree. It will not resume from your retirement effective date.

For example, you have a retirement effective date of Dec. 1, 2024, and you return to work at a reporting unit in February 2025 and you earn more than $15,100 in a calendar year from your public school employment. If you terminate employment June 15, 2025, you'll have to be retired six consecutive months from June 15, 2025, to return to work at a reporting unit with no earnings limit and no impact on your pension and insurance premium subsidy.

There is no earnings limit, whether you work at a Michigan public school reporting unit or outside a Michigan public school reporting unit.

No, you're no longer subject to an earnings limit since you stayed under the $15,100 earnings limit during the six months of post-retirement employment. You're no longer subject to any earnings limit once you've reached at least six months since your retirement date.

PA 147 of 2023 took effect Oct. 10, 2023.

No. If you return to work — either directly or indirectly — before you've been retired six consecutive months you can only earn $15,100 in a calendar year as a retiree from your public school employment. If you earn more than that, you'll temporarily forfeit your pension and insurance premium subsidy. This means if you're receiving an insurance premium subsidy, you'll have to pay the entire insurance premium until you end your employment at the reporting unit. In order to reinstate your pension or your insurance subsidy, you would have to terminate your employment with the reporting unit. When you terminate employment, have the reporting unit send notification of the termination to ORS, listing the date your employment with them ended.

Also, if you return to work before you've been retired six consecutive months, the six consecutive months clock will start over when you terminate your employment as a retiree. It will not resume from your retirement effective date. 

There is a delay between when you earn your wages and when your employer reports those wages to us. The best way to find out how much you’ve earned this calendar year is to check your last pay stub.

You can make changes to your insurance enrollment online using miAccount.

Once you're logged in to miAccount, go to the Insurance Coverage tab and follow the prompts on each page. Be sure to save your changes when you're finished. Once you have saved these changes, you'll receive a confirmation page. Print a copy of the confirmation page and send it along with any necessary proofs to:

Michigan Office of Retirement Services
PO Box 30171
Lansing, MI 48909-7671

Please see Dependent Coverage for proofs needed for dependents.

Or you may complete and submit the Insurance Enrollment/Change Request (R0452C) form, along with any required proofs, to ORS.

You must have a qualifying event to enroll in the insurances without a six-month waiting period. Your coverage can begin as early as the first of the month after you apply, and we receive the required proofs.

For retirees with Medicare, your coverage can begin the first of the second month after we receive your request and required proofs.

If you do not meet this time frame, your insurance coverage will begin the first day of the sixth month from the date we received your completed application and proofs.

Retirees must have a bona fide termination. This includes not volunteering at a Michigan public school reporting unit during the month of your retirement effective date. There is nothing that prohibits volunteering after a true bona fide termination.

If you return to a Michigan public school reporting unit as a volunteer at the same district you retired from before six consecutive months of retirement, doing the same or similar job to the one you left, this brings into question whether a bona fide termination existed. A bona fide termination would especially be in doubt if you're reemployed after six months.

If ORS later discovers that there was no bona fide termination, you'll be required to repay pension payments you received in error. In addition, you'll be disenrolled from insurance retroactive to your retirement effective date. Any medical costs you incurred during this time will be your responsibility. The amount owed back to the retirement system for pension and insurance premiums may be significant depending on how long you received your pension in error.

A volunteer is someone who is not paid and/or would not receive remuneration for their services at any time. ORS cannot speak to district and union rules surrounding volunteering in a position that is typically a paid position.

If, as of Oct. 10, 2023, you were already “dually employed” as both an active member in the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System and in a position that provides service to a public school, either as an independent contractor or through a third party, you could retire and collect your retirement benefits immediately while continuing to work in your third party position as long as you have been continuously employed in the same manner as you were on Oct. 10 , 2023.

Here are some examples:

• Mary works as a part-time teacher at Waverly Community Schools. She is also employed as of Oct. 10, 2023, by Michigan Virtual (not a reporting unit, but a third-party employer) to provide asynchronous AP English for a couple of school districts. If Mary continues to be employed in both capacities and retires from Waverly Community Schools, she can continue to work for Michigan Virtual without any impact to her retirement benefits. She will not have her pension suspended or be required to wait six consecutive months to work for Michigan Virtual.
• Bob works in the payroll office at Lansing Public Schools. On Fridays and weekends, he drives a bus — usually for sporting events and special events — for Dean Transportation serving Grand Ledge Public Schools. He was employed in both positions as of Oct. 10, 2023. When he retires from Lansing Public Schools, he can draw his retirement benefits immediately and continue to drive a bus for Dean Transportation.
• Joe is working for DeWitt Public Schools and is planning to retire in the future. He has no other employment as of Oct. 10, 2023. Before retirement, he decides to pick up a contract with a third-party transportation provider serving several public schools. When Joe retires from DeWitt Public Schools, he will need to terminate his third-party employment for six consecutive months or be subject to the $15,100 earnings limit, or he will forfeit his retirement benefits until terminating employment.

Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Northern Michigan, Western Michigan, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, and Michigan Technological universities are limited participants in the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System only for those employees hired before Jan. 1, 1996. These universities no longer participate for employees hired after that date.

A bona fide termination means that you have completely severed the employer-employee relationship with your Michigan public school reporting unit employer. This includes that you do not work for a reporting unit during the month of your retirement effective date and that you do not intend or expect to have an offer or contingency to become employed at any reporting unit.

If you worked anywhere else but at one of the seven universities, you may work at one of the universities immediately after you leave Michigan public school employment.

Example: Bob retires from Marquette Public Schools and has never worked for a university. He could work for any of the seven universities immediately after retiring with no impact to his pension or insurance premium subsidy.

Yes. If you first worked at a university after Jan. 1, 1996, that service is not considered as part of your pension calculation. You may work at one of the seven universities with no effect to your pension or insurance premium subsidy.

Example 1: Judy retires from a Michigan K-12 public school. Years ago, she worked for one of the seven universities. She could immediately work at one of the seven universities with no effect on either her pension or insurance premium subsidy.

Example 2: Greg retires from Detroit Public Schools and is also employed at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) where he was hired after Jan. 1, 1996. Greg does not need a bona fide termination with EMU and can remain employed at EMU and still collect a pension for his work at Detroit Public Schools. Greg would need a bona fide termination from Detroit Public Schools and will need to wait at least six months before returning to any other reporting unit that is not a university.

Example 3: Zee works at Northern Michigan University and was hired by them before Jan. 1, 1996. She plans to retire from Northern Michigan University in December 2023. Zee will need to have a bona fide termination with Northern Michigan University and wait six consecutive months before she can take a job with any K-12 reporting unit or community college, without having an earnings limit. Zee could take a job at one of the seven universities if she had a bona fide termination of employment when she retired.

Example 4: Charlotte retires with a bona fide termination from Ferris State University (FSU), which includes not working for FSU during the month of her retirement effective date. She could then work for any one of the universities, including FSU, with no impact to her pension and premium subsidy.