In order to receive monthly pension payments, you must be retired. This means that you must stop working in any employment or self-employment as described below.
There are jobs that you are not permitted to do when you are receiving a pension benefit from the Plan. The term that is used is “Prohibited Employment.”
1. Prohibited Employment before age 65
To continue receiving your monthly pension from the Plan, you must not work in any of the following:
a) Any employment covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the District Council of Plasterers and Cement Masons of the Northern California or an affiliated Local Union; or
b) Any employment for the Northern California Cement Masons Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC), the District Council or an affiliated Local Union; or
c) Any employment or self-employment for wages or profits in the Building and Construction Industry in the geographical jurisdiction of the Plan or a Related Plan which has a Reciprocal Agreement.
2. Prohibited Employment after age 65, but before the Required Beginning Date
To continue receiving your monthly pension after you reach age 65 and before the “Required Beginning Date,” you must not work in any employment or self-employment for wages or profit for 40 or more hours during a calendar month in any of the following:
a) In an industry in which you were employed and accrued benefits under the Plan as a result of that employment at the time your pension began (or would have begun had you continued working);
b) In a trade or craft in which you were employed at any time under the Plan; and
c) In the State of California.
Starting Prohibited Employment
Within 15 days after starting any employment described in either “Prohibited Employment before Normal Retirement Age (age 65)” or “Prohibited Employment after Normal Retirement Age, but before the Required Beginning Date”, you must notify the Board of that employment, in writing, sent by first class mail to the Trust Fund Office. This written notice must be given regardless of the number of hours of work.
Failure to Provide Notice
If you fail to comply with the notice requirement above, the Board may act on certain presumptions which are described in the Summary Plan Description.
Ending Prohibited Employment
You must notify the Board, in writing, addressed to the Trust Fund Office, when your prohibited employment has ended. The suspension of your pension payments may continue until the notice is filed with the Board.
Bi-Annual Verification
As a condition to receiving future pension benefit payments, you will be required to submit evidence verifying that you are unemployed or that any employment in which you are, or have been, engaged is not prohibited by the Plan Rules. If you are under the age of 65 and you are receiving a Disability Pension, you must verify that you continue to be disabled or that you continue to receive a Social Security Disability Benefit.
Required Beginning Date
The term Required Beginning Date means the April 1st following your 701/2 birth date. Once you reach the Required Beginning Date, you must begin receiving your pension and you may engage in any type of employment, anywhere, for any amount of hours and still continue to receive your monthly pension benefit.
Before Age 65
If you are employed or self-employed in work described in the section “Prohibited Employment” before age 65, your pension payments will be suspended (stopped) and permanently withheld for each month that you work in prohibited employment.
In order for your pension payments to begin again, three months must pass since you last worked in prohibited employment. In other words, once you have stopped working in Prohibited Employment, your pension will not begin again until the first day of the fourth month after you have stopped working in Prohibited Employment.
This does not apply if you return to work after you recover from a disability for which you were receiving a Disability Pension benefit.
After Age 65
If you are employed or self-employed in work described under Prohibited Employment after Normal Retirement Age (age 65), but before the Required Beginning Date, your pension payments will be suspended (stopped) and permanently withheld for each calendar month you work 40 or more hours in Prohibited Employment. In other words, you may work up to 39 hours in any calendar month but once you work 40 or more hours in the calendar month at a job not allowed by the Plan, your pension will stop for any month(s) you work 40 or more hours.
After you attain the Required Beginning Date, you may work in any occupation for any amount of hours without jeopardizing your pension.
Additional Benefit Accruals
If you return to work in Covered Employment, you may be able to accrue additional benefits so long as you work a minimum of 300 hours within a Plan Credit Year.
Recovery of Overpayments
If a Pensioner or Beneficiary has been paid more than he is entitled to under the Plan, for reasons including, but not limited to working in Prohibited Employment, in the case of a Pensioner, the Board has the right to offset from future pension payments the amount of the overpayment in such installments as determined by the Board. In the case of a Pensioner who is over age 65, the deduction will be 100% of the initial resumption payment or the full amount that was suspended, whichever is less; thereafter, the deduction will not exceed 25% of that month’s total benefit payment which would have been due but for the deduction.
No Longer Receiving Social Security Disability Benefits or Recovery from Disability
If you are a disability Pensioner younger than age 65 and you are no longer eligible for a Social Security Disability Benefit (or its equivalent), or you recover from your disability, you must notify the Trust Fund Office within 21 days after the date you receive notice from the Social Security Administration (or its equivalent) of your loss of eligibility, or your recovery, in order to avoid any loss of benefits when you retire again.
Once a disability Pensioner reaches age 65, his pension will continue for the rest of his life, as long as he remains retired, even if he recovers from his disability.
