Types of Service Credit
When your retirement application is processed, we forward your insurance information to the health, prescription drug, dental, and vision insurance carriers. You should receive insurance identification cards and materials a few weeks after your pension begins.
As a retiree, your state-sponsored life insurance continues for you and your dependents at no charge to you. Your coverage is 25 percent of the coverage you carried when you left work; your dependents' policies are capped at $1,000 each.
To view Long-Term Care Insurance (LTC) plan details, visit the Employee Benefits Division of the Michigan Civil Service Commission under Retiree Eligibility. If you previously enrolled in a state-sponsored LTCI plan with LifeSecure, Prudential or MetLife, you can call the vendor directly. For the LifeSecure Indiv
Eligible dependents for health, dental, and vision insurance plans include your spouse (as long as he or she is not also separately enrolled as an eligible state employee or retiree) and your unmarried children by birth, legal adoption, or full legal guardianship.
The Benefits for Life, the retiree-paid, optional coverage program offered through the state of Michigan offers you the opportunity to apply for coverage in key benefit areas. These offerings do not replace your state-sponsored benefit plans. Instead, the program offers additional financial protection with premiums payable through the convenience of pension deduction. Because the plans are optiona
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Your service credit reflects the years, or fractions of years, you have worked as a member of the Defined Benefit (DB) Plan for the State of Michigan or one of its noncentral agencies. Noncentral agencies are state-affiliated organizations whose employees are covered under the State Employees' Retirement Act: American Legion, Business Enterprise Program, Mackinac Island State Park, Michigan State Bar, Third Circuit Court, Wayne County Clerk Recorders Court, or 36th District Court.
For retirement purposes, 2,080 hours equals 1 year. You are credited with a full year if you work 2,080 hours; however, you may earn no more than 1 year of service in any given year and no more than 80 hours in a pay period. Note: Banked leave time and mandatory furlough hours will not adversely affect your accumulation of service credit.
Any work that is less than full time or intermittent (for example, a job-share position or seasonal work) is evaluated using the hours worked converted to a fraction of a year. The following table shows examples of how part-time employees earn service credit in proportion to the hours worked.
If you are a Defined Benefit Plan member and have worked for other Michigan governmental units (public school, or local governments, for example) you may be able to combine that service with your state service to qualify for a pension. The ability to combine service for eligibility purposes is permitted under Act 88 — Reciprocal Retirement Act of 1961.