What can I buy back?
Leaves of absence
| You may qualify to buy back: |
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employer-approved leaves for specific, continuous periods of time; |
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pregnancy and parental leaves; and |
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religious holidays. |
Breaks in service
| You may qualify to buy back credit for a break in service if you were not granted a leave of absence and you left your job: |
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to care for a child under age seven; |
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for compassionate reasons, such as caring for an ill family member; |
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because of ill heath; or |
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to serve in an elected office (municipal, federal or provincial). |
Credit for other employment
You may qualify to buy back credit under the “other employment” provision if you belonged to another registered pension plan in Canada. Other rules apply, depending on when you had service in the other plan:
For service before 1992
To qualify, you still must have funds in the other pension plan and the funds must be available to transfer directly to the Teachers’ pension plan.
For service after 1991
To qualify, you must not be entitled to a benefit from or have contributions in the other plan for the same period you wish to purchase, unless you transfer these funds to the Teachers’ pension plan as part of your purchase.
The cost of buying back credit for other employment is calculated on an actuarial basis. This means you pay the full cost of the expected improvement in your pension as a result of the purchase.
Repayment of refund
You may qualify to repay any pension contributions you received if you left the plan. To be eligible, you must return to work for the equivalent of at least 70 full-time days of employment in a single school year. Vacation days, statutory holidays and accumulated sick leave days do not count toward the 70-day minimum.
If you apply within a year of returning to work, you can repay the refund, with interest, in a lump sum within three years of your return.
If you miss the deadlines, the repayment will be at actuarial cost, which could be significantly higher.
If you repay only part of the refund, you will receive a proportionate increase in credit. The rest of the repayment can be made later, but it will be at actuarial cost regardless of when the payment is made.
Repayment of commuted value
You may qualify to repay the commuted value of your pension if you removed it from the Teachers’ pension plan when you stopped working in education in Ontario and you later rejoin the pension plan. The commuted value is the lump sum you would need today to replace your future pension.
The cost to return the funds is the greater of the commuted value you received, plus interest, or the actuarial cost of the benefit.
To qualify, you must return to work for the equivalent of at least 20 full-time days of employment in a single school year. Vacation days, statutory holidays and accumulated sick leave days do not count toward the 20-day minimum.
When is a buyback unnecessary?
There is no need to buy back credit in the following situations because your pension benefits continue to accumulate seamlessly during your absence.
A legal strike
Your pension credit is not affected during a legal strike or lockout. Your employer reports a loss of salary, but not your absence. This means you do not lose credit during a legal strike. If a strike occurs in one of your “best-five” years, you or your federation can make up the loss in salary.
A deferred salary leave
Your employer continues to deduct pension contributions from your pay while you are on a deferred salary leave, sometimes know as an “x over y” plan. |
