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What’s the Difference?
Credited vs Eligible Service Credited Service: The years and months you have been contributing to the OMERS Plan as well as any past service or leave periods you choose to purchase as credited. We use your credited service to calculate your pension. What does it mean for my pension? The longer you contribute or the more you purchase, the bigger your pension. |
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Eligible Service:
Service with any OMERS employer that is not credited service (i.e., time when you were not contributing to the Plan).
What does it mean for my pension?
It can help bring you closer to an unreduced early retirement pension; however, it does not change the credited service used in the Plan pension benefit formula.
What kind of service is eligible?
Some examples of eligible service include:
• Service with an OMERS employer prior to enrolling in the Plan
• Summer-student work with an OMERS employer
• Unpurchased pregnancy/parental leave
• Service that was refunded when you left an OMERS employer
Sometimes, eligible service can be purchased to become credited.
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To learn more about this see How to: Buy Back Past Service in this issue. Not all eligible service is purchasable. If you work a non-full-time position (such as seasonal, contract or 10-month employees), the unscheduled periods of employment (“top-up service”) is not purchasable because it is time you would have otherwise not been working.
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Did you know?
Effective January 1, 2021, OMERS will no longer cap your credited service. This means that if you have not reached 35 years of credited service prior to this date, you will continue to contribute and accrue credited service in the Plan – and more credited service means a larger pension when you retire. |