TRS must receive the following payments before any death benefits can be processed:

• All Qualified Pension Plan (QPP) retirement allowance payments and/or Tax-Deferred Annuity (TDA) Program annuity payments that were cashed or directly deposited after the member’s date of death; uncashed checks must also be returned to TRS.
• An amount representing an overpayment of the member’s QPP retirement allowance; in these cases, the member was in the process of reimbursing TRS for the overpayment.

When you log in to the TRS website to file your benefit claim, the dollar amount owed to TRS and instructions for repayment will be indicated. Your notification letter also provides this information.

M-C-A-F stands for Member Contributions Accumulation Fund. This account contains a Tier III, IV, or VI member's Qualified Pension Plan (QPP) contributions with interest, and includes any contributions that the member paid to purchase credit for optional service.

The funds in the Fixed Return Fund are a subset of the Pension Fund. The Pension Fund also includes contributions that Tier III, IV, and VI members make toward their QPP accounts.

Your maximum loan amount may be less than you expected because the maximum amount you may borrow is restricted by certain conditions. These conditions are explained in the QPP Loans and TDA Loans brochures.

During your first three plan years of membership, TRS will use a projection of your annual wages to determine your contribution rate; these projections are based on your most recent contractual salary, as provided by your employer(s).

Beginning in your fourth plan year of membership and each plan year thereafter, TRS will use your actual wages earned two plan years prior to determine your contribution rate; your wage information is provided by your employer(s). As an example, for the plan year beginning January 1, 2019, the contribution rate would be based on the actual wages for the plan year beginning January 1, 2017.

Note for members who receive wages from multiple employers (i.e., Department of Education, City University of New York, participating New York City Charter Schools): You are required to make pension contributions on all wages received from your primary employer. (Your TRS membership is based on your position with your primary employer.) Pension contributions are also required on all wages from your second employer. However, if you have more than two employers, contributions would only be required on the wages from two employers: your primary employer and the additional employer that provides you with the highest total wages.

Tier I and II members can apply at anytime by filing a QPP Contributions Change Application (code IP1).

Taking an excess withdrawal would not impact your loan eligibility. However, it would reduce the amount available for a future QPP loan.

Your maximum loan amount may be less than you expected because the maximum amount you may borrow is restricted by certain conditions. These conditions are explained in the QPP Loans and TDA Loans brochures.

In general, when you leave service, you may repay your outstanding loan balance in a lump sum within 30 days of TRS' notification. If you do not pay the balance within that timeframe: your outstanding QPP loan amount would generally be reduced from your QPP fund balances; and your outstanding TDA loan balance would be considered a taxable distribution and would be reported to the IRS. However, if you have vested rights when you leave service, you may maintain an outstanding TDA loan balance by filing a TDA Deferral Status Election Form (for vested members) (code TD31).

When you retire, any outstanding QPP or TDA loan balance would be deducted from your funds in the corresponding program, reducing the amount available for your retirement. In addition, the balance would be considered a distribution, and any taxable portion of the balance would be subject to 20% withholding. TRS would take this withholding from any subsequent cash payment made to you from the corresponding program in the same tax year. This would be a loan at retirement, and if necessary, a QPP excess withdrawal to a Tier I or II member, or a TDA withdrawal. If the withholding due were greater than the subsequent cash payment, TRS would issue you a check in a nominal amount of $10 and would take the balance of the payment towards your withholding obligation.