When you join the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS), you’re assigned a tier based on the date of your membership. There are six tiers in the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) and five in the Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS). Each tier has a different benefit structure established by New York State legislation.
Our series, NYSLRS — One Tier at a Time, walks through each tier to give you a quick look at the benefits in both ERS and PFRS. Today’s post looks at PFRS Tier 5. Anyone who joined PFRS from January 9, 2010 through March 31, 2012 is in Tier 5. There were 1,967 PFRS Tier 5 members as of March 31, 2021, making up 5.6 percent of PFRS membership.
About Special Plans
Under a regular plan, you need to reach certain age and service requirements to receive your NYSLRS pension. If you’re covered by a special plan, there is no age requirement, and you can receive your pension after completing 20 or 25 years of service.
Nearly 80 percent of PFRS members are in plans covered under Sections 384, 384-d, 384-e or 384-f of the Retirement and Social Security Law. Read our Police and Fire Retirement System blog post for information about different PFRS plans.
Check out the graphic below for the basic retirement information for PFRS Tier 5.
If you’re a PFRS Tier 5 member, you can find detailed information about your benefits in the retirement plan booklets listed below:
- Special 20- and 25-Year Plans (Sections 384, 384-d and 384-e)
- State Police Plan (Section 381-b)
- Regional State Park Police Plan (Section 383-a)
- En-Con Police Officers Plan (Section 383-b)
- State University Police Plan (Section 383-d)
- Forest Rangers Plan (Section 383-c)
- New Career Plan (Sections 375-h and 375-i)
- Career Plan (Sections 375-f and 375-g)
- Non-Contributory Plan With Guaranteed Benefits (Section 375-e)
- Police and Fire Plan (Sections 375-b and 375-c)
- Basic Plan with Increased-Take-Home-Pay (ITHP) (Section 370-a, 371-a & 375)
For special plans under miscellaneous titles, please visit our Publications page.
Check out other posts in the PFRS series:
I have heard discussion about Tier 5 being assimilated into Tier 2. Is that something that has any merit or just a rumor?
Retirement benefits are established by law. The decision on whether to enact new laws comes from the State Legislature and the Governor.
Can I get 20 years of credit with 19.95 years of service towards retirement due to medical.issues?
To get the account-specific information you need, please email our customer service representatives using our secure email form. One of our representatives will review your account and respond to your questions. Filling out the secure form allows us to safely contact you about your personal account information.
I worked for New York City from 2002 until earlier this year when i took a job upstate and joined NYSLRS. I joined NYCERS in 2011 and bought back my time. This placed me in Tier 4 of NYCERS, but when I transferred my service to NYSLRS (which is in progress) I was told this will place me in Tier 5.
My question/problem is that under NYCERS rules I contributed a basic member contribution of 3% for 10 years and an additional member contribution of 1.85% for all my service. When I transferred my service to NYSLRS, NYCERS refunded me the AMC because they said NYSLRS does not recognize these contributions.
However, since I am losing out and moving to Tier 5, if I am not mistaken I will need to pay back 3% of my salary for service above 10 years, since NYCERS did not collect that money. I would like to use the AMCs I have accumulated to do this, but do not see how that can be done.
Thank you.
In order to get the specific information you need about how to pay for your previous service credit, please email our customer service representatives using our secure email form, and one of our representatives can review your account to address your questions and give you the answers you need. Explain your situation/question in the Comment field of the form. Filling out the secure form allows us to safely contact you about your personal account information. Please allow five to seven business days for a response.