NJ A5160

School district and board of education employees working more than 20 hours per week but not meeting standard minimum work hour requirements for PERS enrollment will now be eligible to join the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS)

Current public school employees enrolled in the Defined Contribution Retirement Program (DCRP) must be transferred to PERS within 180 days of the act taking effect

Transferred employees receive service credit in PERS dating back to their original DCRP enrollment date for eligibility purposes (retirement, disability, health benefits), but this transferred service credit cannot be used to calculate pension benefit amounts

The State is responsible for a one-time payment covering the unfunded liability created by the transfer, calculated as the difference between transferred DCRP funds and the actuarially determined unfunded liability

The unfunded accrued liability resulting from the transfer will be amortized over a 20-year period