Types of Retirement

Service retirement is available to members who have reached the age of 60 or older. No minimum amount of pension membership credit is required.

The calculation is:

Years of Service – This means the years and months of pension service that is credited to your account.

Salary – This means the base salary on which your pension is calculated. It does not include pay for overtime, clothing allowance, housing allowance, or uniform allowance.

Final Average Salary – This means your average salary for the three years prior to your retirement (prior 36 months for 12 month employees or prior 30 months for 10 month employees). If your last three years are not your highest years of salary you may calculate using your three highest fiscal years (July 1st – June 30th). If this is the case you need to indicate this on your retirement application.

Early retirement is available to members who have 25 or more years of pension membership credit before age 60.

The calculation is:

However; if you retire before age 55 your pension will be permanently reduced by ¼ of 1 percent for each month under the age of 55 (or three percent per year).

Examples of Early Retirement:

Veteran retirement is available to qualified military veterans who remain in active employment until the date of their retirement and who meet the minimum age and pension service credit requirements for a Veteran Retirement as of their retirement date

A qualified military veteran may retire with:

• 25 years of service credit at age 55 or older, or;
• 20 years of service credit at age 60 or older, or;
• 35 years of service credit at age 55 or older.
• Veterans meeting the age requirement with between 20 and 34 years of military service credit will retire with an annual benefit equal to 54.5% of the salary upon which pension contributions were based on the last year of employment or the highest twelve months of base salary.

• For the definition of a “veteran” under the pension system, please click on the link below and go to pages 11 and 12 of the PERS Member handbook (http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/handbook/persbook.pdf)

Deferred retirement is available to any member who has at least ten years of service credit and has not yet reached the age of sixty. Retirement would be effective the first month after attaining the age of 60.

The formula to calculate your deferred pension is the same as the one for “Service Retirement”.

To qualify for ordinary disability retirement a member must:

• have an active pension account with at least one pension contribution within the two years preceding your ceasing employment due to your disability. (If you have gone more that two years with a contribution to the PERS system and you continue to be unable to work please contact the Division of Pension and Benefits for more information);
• have ten or more years of New Jersey service credit (Out of State, Military, or U.S. Government Civilian Service purchases cannot be used to attain ten years of service);
• be considered totally and completely disabled (physically or mentally incapacitated from performing your normal duties with no possibility of significant improvement); and,
• submit medical reports certifying your disability.

If you qualify for an Ordinary Disability Retirement, the annual benefit is equal to 43.6% of your Final Average Salary (see above) or 1.64 of your Final Average Salary for each year of service credit, whichever is greater.

If you need to apply for Ordinary Disability Retirement under PERS, please click on the link below and go to page 18 of the handbook for instructions -
(http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/handbook/persbook.pdf)

To view the requirements to qualify for Accidental Disability Retirement please see page 15 of the PERS member handbook:
(http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/handbook/persbook.pdf)

For more information please refer to the NJ PERS member handbook:
http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/epbam/exhibits/handbook/persbook.pdf)