Your Statement of Participation under a public-sector pension plan

This section on your Statement of Participation introduces you to personalized retirement scenarios derived from your years of service and age when you retire.

The scenarios are designed using data Retraite Québec receives from your employer.

Since you are contributing to a public-sector pension plan, your employer or employers deduct contributions from your salary and pay them into your pension plan, which gives you entitlement to benefits payable when you retire or your employment ends.

Below are three different retirement scenarios based on various eligibility requirements:

• the 1^st scenario shows the person's earliest possible retirement date with a reduced pension at age 55. The retirement pension amount will be reduced permanently;
• the 2^nd scenario shows the person's eligibility for an unreduced retirement pension at age 56, that is, after 35 years of service. The retirement pension amount is not reduced;
• the 3^rd scenario shows the person's estimated retirement pension amount at age 65.

If you would like to obtain the percentage of the current annual salary that will correspond to the pension you will receive when you retire, you can make the following calculation: (Estimated pension / Pensionable salary) X 100.

Please note that pension credits and additional pensions are included in the pension estimates indicated on your Statement. On the first page of your information sheet, under the Estimate of your pension section, a note will indicate what is included in your pension estimates.

Reduction in the amount of your pension at age 65

Under your pension plan, your retirement pension amount decreases when you turn 65. The reduction could be offset in part or in full by the Québec Pension Plan (QPP), the Old Age Security (OAS) pension from the federal government or personal savings. For more information, please consult the Integration of your public-sector pension plan with the Québec Pension Plan (QPP) brochure.

Possible variations in your retirement pension amount

The amounts indicated in your Statement are an estimate of the amounts that you could receive when you retire. The actual amount of your retirement pension could differ if there are changes during your career (e.g. salary, hours of work, days of absence, buy-backs, etc.).

Your pension estimate takes into account the partition of the benefits accrued under the pension plan indicated in your file following the breakdown of your union. For partition to be taken into account, it must have been carried out before the date of the Statement. If this is not the case, the estimates do not take into account partition because, as of the date of the Statement, no partition was indicated in your file.

In addition, on the first page of your information sheet, in the Estimate of your pension section, a note will indicate if partition has been taken into account for your pension estimate.

For more information about partition, consult the In the Event of the Breakdown of Your Union web page.

Accruing years of service

In general, to have a complete year of service credited for the purpose of calculating your pension, you must work full-time throughout the year. If you work part-time, your plan will credit part of a year. If the years of service for calculation purposes are less than 1 (1.0000), it usually means that you did not work full-time for the entire year. However, there may be other reasons that you have not been credited a full year. For more information, contact Retraite Québec.

Eligibility for your retirement pension

It is possible to retire on a date different than the ones indicated on your Statement. The dates shown in the scenarios correspond to the dates on which you will meet the first eligibility requirement for an unreduced or reduced pension.

An unreduced retirement pension means that no reduction has been applied to the pension amount because you meet one of the eligibility requirements for an unreduced pension.

If you are eligible for a reduced pension, the amount of your retirement pension will be reduced permanently.

If you would like to obtain estimates for other dates than the ones entered on your Statement, you can file an Application for a Pension Estimate.

For more information on the eligibility requirements for a reduced or unreduced retirement pension, please consult the brochure concerning your public-sector pension plan.

You will find information concerning the indexation of your pension on your Statement of Participation and Information Sheet. It shows the increase in the amount of the pension you are currently receiving, or are to receive, in accordance with the rate of increase of the Pension Index (PI). The PI is determined in accordance with the Act respecting the Québec Pension Plan.

Retraite Québec uses the PI to determine the indexation rate for benefits paid under public-sector pension plans. The Information Sheet enclosed with your Statement of Participation indicates the current indexation rate.

This portion of your Statement of Participation indicates the amounts to which you would be entitled if you end your employment during the period of service that is taken into account when your Statement is produced. In addition, it shows the amounts your spouse or heirs could receive in the event of your death.

In certain situations, no Statement will be sent. It is the case for someone:

• who retired during the year
• whose application for a retirement pension is being processed
• age 69 or over, or in phased retirement
• whose employment status changed during the year. For example, a person who no longer contributes to a public-sector pension plan, works for an employer who is not subject to the public-sector pension plan and does not receive a retirement pension under a public-sector pension plan.

Individuals in such situations will not receive a Statement of Participation, but a document adapted to their situation. For example, if you are already receiving a retirement pension, we will send you a statement of benefits called Your Pension.

This section in your Statement of Participation indicates your contributions under your public-sector pension plan, as well as the amounts transferred from another pension plan. In addition, it shows the interest accrued as at 31 December of the previous year.

If you bought back days of absence during the year of the Statement or a prior year, but your buy-back is still being paid, you will also find that information in this section of your Statement of Participation.

The interest on your contributions is calculated according to the rate in effect during each period of the year taken into account when producing your Statement. It is calculated proportionally to each period. The interest rate applied to the contributions may vary throughout a given year.

A negative interest rate does not have any impact on your retirement pension amount because your pension is calculated based on a fixed formula, and not on the total amount of your contributions and accrued interest. However, it affects the total because, for the period during which the interest rate is negative, no interest is accrued on your contributions.

This section of your personalized Statement of Participation indicates whether you have days of absence that you can buy back. If your Statement contains a table showing days of absence, you can buy back periods of absence without pay (parental leave, compassionate care leave) that were not credited to you under your pension plan. Whether you are working full-time or part-time, buying back those days of absence could increase your retirement pension amount or allow you to retire earlier.

If you bought back periods of absence before 31 December, they will no longer be indicated in the section entitled Days of absence that can be bought back. However, the service recognized for the buy-back as well as the contributions will be indicated in the section entitled Years of service and contributions.

If the periods of absence were bought back in the year of the Statement or the payment of the buy-back is still in progress, it will be indicated in the section entitled Years of service and contributions on the line entitled Buy-back.

If the periods of absence were bought back a year prior to the year of the Statement and the buy-back was fully paid, it will be indicated in the section entitled Years of service and contributions on the first line of the table entitled Cumulative as at 31 December of the year preceding the Statement.