Pension Plan Summary Plan Description
11.7 Benefit Payments Following End of Suspension
Timing of Resumption. Monthly pension payments will resume for months after the last month for which benefits were suspended. The first post-suspension payment will be paid no later than the third month after the last calendar month of the suspension, along with any required make-up payments for the one or two preceding months.
Makeup of Suspended Early Pension Payments. Suspended payments of a reduced Early Pension will be made up in the actuarial value of your post-suspension payments to the extent that the suspension of pre-Normal Retirement Age payments reduced your Accrued Benefit. Suspended payments of an unreduced Early Pension will similarly be made up, but a pre-Normal Retirement Age suspension of an unreduced Early Pension will not ordinarily cause a reduction in the Participant's Accrued Benefit, and thus will not ordinarily be made up upon resumption of payments. Two examples help illustrate these makeup rules:
Example 1. Ed retires at age 60 with a monthly Accrued Benefit of $4,000. He qualifies for an unreduced Early Pension, and begins to receive his $4,000 monthly payments. One year later, at age 61, Ed returns to work in the Electrical Industry for 12 months. His monthly payments are suspended for those 12 months. Ed then ceases work entirely and permanently at age 62. The Plan then resumes making his $4,000 monthly payments (plus a small additional amount for his additional service earned during the 12 months). Ed will receive no additional makeup benefits for having lost 12 months of pension payments under his unreduced Early Pension.
Example 2. Susan begins her Early Pension at age 63 after having earned a monthly Accrued Benefit of $4,000. Because Susan has not worked in the Electrical Industry for a number of years, she does not qualify for an unreduced Early Pension. Therefore, her monthly Early Pension amount is $3,520 (i.e., $4,000, reduced by .5% for each of the 24 months that her pension begins before age 65). Susan collects her pension for 12 months, returns to work in the Electrical Industry for 12 months when she attains age 64, and then retires permanently when she attains age 65. Because Susan's Early Pension benefit of $3,520 is at least as valuable as her Accrued Benefit of $4,000 that begins at age 65, Susan will receive an increase to her $3,520 monthly pension (plus a small additional amount for her additional service during the 12 additional months she worked) when she resumes receiving pension payments upon returning to work that is actuarially equal to the 12 monthly payments she lost.
Thus, some Participants may receive a partial makeup of payments suspended before Normal Retirement Age, but Participants will receive no makeup for payments suspended after Normal Retirement Age.