If you are a TSERS member, while you are receiving short-term, extended short-term or long-term DIPNC benefits, you are granted TSERS creditable service for each month you are eligible for and paid a DIPNC benefit. Creditable service is not granted for any month that you are earning creditable service in any state-administered retirement system. Your TSERS membership service is added to your TSERS creditable service to determine your eligibility date for unreduced service retirement benefits. The Retirement System will calculate your average final compensation for your TSERS retirement benefit based on the higher of your actual compensation or the compensation used in calculating benefits under DIPNC as adjusted for increases in post-disability benefits.
Approximately 90 to 120 days before you reach the eligibility requirements for an unreduced service retirement benefit, the Retirement System will send you a letter notifying you that you are being converted from long-term disability to service retirement, and explaining what forms you must complete in order to begin receiving your service retirement benefits.
Upon submission of your completed service retirement paperwork to the Retirement System, your monthly service retirement benefit will be established, and you will no longer be subject to medical re-examinations, DIPNC offsets or DIPNC earnings limitations. Also, you will no longer have to submit an annual Statement of Income form. However, you will be subject to the return-to-work laws that apply to retirees who are receiving TSERS service retirement benefits.
If you were a participant in the UNC Optional Retirement Program, you will receive long-term benefits until you reach the age and service requirements to qualify for an unreduced service retirement had you elected to participate in the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS). You should apply for retirement in ORP by contacting your previous employer.
If you are a disabled TSERS member who has five or more years of maintained TSERS retirement membership service credit prior to January 1, 1988, and become disabled, as approved by the Medical Board, you will have the opportunity to elect to receive either:
- DIPNC benefits or
- TSERS disability retirement benefits
The Retirement Systems Division will provide you with information to assist you in comparing these benefits.
Disability retirement benefits are based in part on the projected amount of retirement service credit that you would have earned had you been able to continue working until the time you would have reached eligibility for an unreduced service retirement benefit. In addition, if you earned and maintained five or more years of TSERS membership service prior to July 1, 1982, you may be eligible to receive disability retirement benefits, upon approval by the Medical Board, that are based in part on the projected amount of service that you would have earned if you had been able to remain in service until age 65.
If you are eligible for, and you elect to receive, disability retirement benefits, your payment under the Maximum Allowance will be calculated using the same formula as a service retirement benefit, with your creditable service projected as described. Under disability retirement, you may choose any payment option that is available to early/ service retirees except Option 4. If you choose a survivorship option, it will be calculated using disability reduction percentages.
This page was last modified on 02/28/2025