Health
& We
lfare
and Pension Funds
of Philadelphia and Vicinity
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Participation and Eligibility for Benefits You are an active Participant in this Plan if you are actively working for an Employer who has a Collective Bargaining Agreement with a Union that is a party to the Plan and the Employer has agreed to make contributions to the Plan on your behalf. There is no age or service requirement, or waiting or probationary period, for participation in this Plan. You are a Participant as soon as your Employer begins to make contributions for you. This Plan also permits participation by classes of employees (Local Union employees and Fund office employees) working in Covered Employment who participate in the Plan by reason of Pension Agreements other than collective bargaining agreements. As you work in Covered Employment, you will earn Vesting Service and Benefit Service toward your pension benefit. These terms are important for you to understand and are explained in Sections IV and V, respectively. To be eligible for a pension benefit you must be "vested" -- that is, you must either retire from Covered Employment after attaining Normal Retirement Age or satisfy the Plan's minimum service requirement of 10 years of Vesting Service (5 years if you worked in Covered Employment on or after January 1, 1999) (in some cases, federal law may require a shorter vesting period). Once you are vested, you will have a nonforfeitable right to the benefit you have earned or "accrued" up to the time you terminate your participation. When you terminate, you may be years younger than the age at which you will be eligible for Early or Normal retirement benefits, but you still have a nonforfeitable right to the benefit which will be payable to you later on, assuming you survive to retirement age. However, if you terminate your participation in the Plan before you have 10 years of Vesting Service, you may forfeit all benefits that you have accrued up to the date of your termination. In addition to Vesting Service, you earn Benefit Service (sometimes called "Benefit Credit") as you work in Covered Employment. How you earn Benefit Service is described in Section V. Basically speaking, the amount of your pension benefit is based on the years of Benefit Service you have accumulated, as well as the rate (called the "Daily Contribution Rate") at which your Employer makes contributions on your behalf to the Plan. See, in this regard, Section VI of this summary description. There are four retirement benefits available under this Plan:
You will be eligible to receive the Plan's Normal Retirement Benefit if you retire from Covered Employment on or after attaining your "Normal Retirement Age" -- age 65 or, if later, the fifth anniversary of the date your Plan participation began. The amount of this pension is described in Section VI, and will, basically speaking, be based on your accumulated Benefit Service and the rate at which your Employer has made contributions to the Plan. You can, if you choose, continue to work beyond your Normal Retirement Age. If you do, you will continue to earn Benefit Service toward your Retirement Benefit until you have reached the maximum pension amount. You must, however, begin to receive your pension no later than April 1 of the year following the year you attain age 70½. This is so even if you are still working in Covered Employment. If you have attained age 50 and completed the required number of years of Vesting Service, you may, upon application to the Trustees and upon retirement from Covered Employment, receive an Early Retirement Benefit. You may also retire early and begin to receive your benefit if you have completed at least 30 years of Vesting Service or 25 years of Benefit Service, regardless of your age (this is sometimes called a "30 and out" or "25 and out" pension). In some cases, if you qualify under the Plan's "alternative minimum benefit" formula, you can retire at age 55 with 25 or more years of contributory benefit service. See Section IV-C for a further explanation. In most cases, if you retire early the amount of your monthly pension will be reduced to reflect the longer period of time over which it is likely to be paid. If you terminate participation in the Plan before you are eligible for Early or Normal retirement but have earned at least five (5) years of Vesting Service (ten (10) years of Vesting Service if you did not work at least one (1) hour in Covered Employment on or after January 1, 1999), you will have a nonforfeitable right to a benefit. In general, the benefit to which you are entitled will begin to be paid at your Normal Retirement Age. However, you may elect to have your benefit commence on a reduced basis as early as age 50 (provided that you are no longer in Covered Employment nor in suspendible employment under the Plan’s Suspension of Benefit Rules). Generally speaking, your Termination Benefit is determined based on (1) the terms of the Plan in effect when you terminated participation, (2) the Benefit Service you have earned at the time you terminate participation in the Plan, and (3) the rate at which your Employer has made contributions to the Plan prior to your termination of participation (see the description of the Plan's regular benefit formula at Section VI). D. Disability Retirement Pension You may be eligible for a disability pension from the Plan if you meet certain eligibility requirements. These requirements depend on when you first became a participant in the Plan: 1. If you became a participant in the Plan before March 1, 1969, you will be eligible to receive a disability benefit if you meet all of the following conditions: (i) You are totally and permanently disabled (as defined later in this section) while in Covered Employment, (ii) You have completed at least 10 years of Vesting Service (or 5 years if you worked in Covered Employment on or after January 1, 1999), (iii) You have completed three continuous years of Vesting Service in Covered Employment, and (iv) You have had at least 200 days of contributions paid into the Trust Fund by an Employer on your behalf. 2. If you became a participant in the Plan on or after March 1, 1969, you will be eligible to receive a disability retirement benefit if you meet all of the following conditions: (i) You are totally and permanently disabled (as defined later in this section) while in Covered Employment, (ii) You have completed at least 10 years of Vesting Service (5 years if you worked in Covered Employment on or after January 1, 1999), (iii) You have completed at least 5 continuous years of Vesting Service in Covered Employment, and (iv) You have had at least 300 days of contributions paid into the Trust Fund on your behalf by an Employer. You are considered total and permanently disabled if, on the basis of medical evidence satisfactory to the Trustees, you are found to be totally and permanently unable to engage in any further Covered Employment (not necessarily your regular occupation) whatsoever as a result of bodily injury or disease and provided that you do not receive income from any employment or from other personal gainful activity which is equal to or greater than the limitation by the Social Security Administration for those persons eligible for a disability retirement under the Social Security Law at the time you retire on disability. The Trustees may rely on a determination by the Social Security Administration that you are entitled to Social Security disability benefits as proof of total and permanent disability. This is solely in the discretion of the Trustees, however. Before the Trustees act on an application for disability pension you may be required to submit to an examination by a physician or physicians selected by the Trustees and to undergo such tests, x-rays, studies and the like which such physician(s) may require. You may also be required to submit to re-examinations and tests periodically as the Trustees may direct in order to determine whether your disability continues. If the Trustees request you to submit to a re-examination or test and you refuse to submit to such re-examination or test, you will be considered to have recovered from disability. Your disability retirement benefits will cease until you submit to such re-examination and it is established that you continue to be disabled as described above. If at first you refuse to submit to such re-examination but consent within six months of the date you were first requested to do so by the Trustees, payments will be resumed retroactively to the date payments stopped, provided, of course, that the tests show that you continue to be disabled. If you submit to such re-examination more than six months after the date you were first requested to do so by the Trustees, payments will be resumed from the date of re-examination, provided, of course, that the tests show that you continue to be disabled. If the tests do not show that your disability continues, payments will cease. For a description of the amount of the disability retirement pension, see SectionVI-D. Only one of the benefits described in this section will be payable to you. Thus, only one of the following will be payable: Normal Retirement Benefit, Early Retirement Benefit, Disability Retirement Benefit or a Termination Benefit. Under certain conditions a benefit may be payable to your spouse after your death (see Section VII).
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