IPERS provides important protection for you and your family if you become ill or seriously injured. Disability benefits provide a monthly payment that you can receive at any age, without reduction for early retirement.
If you think you might be eligible for disability benefits, visit the disability eligibility page.
Regular Members
When to leave employment
When applying for IPERS disability benefits, take care in deciding when to end covered employment. To qualify for disability benefits, you must live into the first month you receive them. This is usually the month after the month in which you end employment, no matter which day of the month you terminate. If you do not live into that you receive disability benefits, your application will be canceled and a preretirement death benefit will be payable to your beneficiary(ies).
You may become eligible for up to 36 months of retroactive disability benefits preceding the month you submit your completed application to IPERS. IPERS cannot pay retroactive benefits for the months before you received benefits from the federal Social Security Administration or Railroad Retirement Board.
Returning to work while receiving disability benefits
Your Regular Disability Benefits are not affected if you take a job with an employer that is not IPERS-covered.
If you return to IPERS-covered employment, it’s important to know the rules for a bona fide retirement and your earnings limit.
Special Service Members
Applying for Special Service Disability Benefits
You must apply for disability benefits within one year after you leave employment (after July 1, 2000). You may qualify for In-Service or Ordinary Disability Benefits.
After IPERS processes your completed application, you will usually be required to complete a medical exam and evaluation by the Medical Board at the University of Iowa. If you are not 55 years old (50 years old if you are retiring as a Sheriff/Deputy Sheriff Member with 22 years of service as a Special Service Member), you may be required to have additional examinations in the future to continue to receive benefits.
After receiving the letter of recommendation from the Medical Board, IPERS will determine whether you have a disability. If you do, IPERS will determine the type of benefits and prepare a payment estimate.
Offsetting Special Service Disability Benefits
Your Special Service Disability Benefits are generally offset (reduced) by other disability-related payments you receive for the same disability, including benefits from:
- Social Security.
- Long-term disability insurance.
- Workers’ Compensation.
- Unemployment insurance.
- Employer-paid disability plans, programs or policies.
- Other laws.
If you begin receiving any other disability benefits, you must immediately report that information to IPERS, and IPERS will calculate an appropriate offset. If you receive these other disability-related payments as a lump-sum payment, IPERS will calculate a monthly benefit offset.
If you are receiving Special Service Disability Benefits, IPERS requires you to provide complete copies of your state and federal tax returns by June 30 of each calendar year. IPERS reviews these returns to determine whether offsets apply to your Special Service Disability Benefits based on the income you declared on the tax returns.
Returning to work while receiving Special Service Disability Benefits
You may decide to return to work after being awarded Special Service Disability Benefits. If you are younger than age 55 and return to IPERS-covered employment, all benefits will cease immediately. (If you retired as a Sheriff/Deputy Sheriff Member with at least 22 years of service as a Special Service Member, your disability benefits will stop if you return to covered employment of you are younger than age 50.) If you return to noncovered employment, your IPERS Special Service Disability Benefits will be limited as shown below.
IPERS uses the following to determine the excess disability benefit:
- Net Disability Retirement Allowance (NDRA): The amount determined by subtracting the amount you paid during the previous calendar year for health insurance or similar health care coverage for you and your dependents from the amount of your disability benefit.
- Earnings from gainful noncovered employment (E): The amount of income as shown on your federal income tax forms for wages and self-employment income.
- Re-employment Comparison Amount (RCA): An amount equal to the current covered wages of an active Special Service member at the same position on the salary scale as you held at the time you received a disability benefit. This amount will not be less than your highest three-year average salary.
| Reemployment comparison amount formula |
|---|
| STEP 1: Determine whether your (NDRA + E) is greater than (1.5 x RCA). |
| If the answer is no, then no excess disability benefit has been paid. Your disability benefit will not be decreased. If the answer is yes, continue to Step 2. |
| STEP 2: Add NDRA + E and then subtract 1.5 x RCA to calculate your excess disability benefit. |
Switching from Special Service Disability Benefits to Regular Disability Benefits
If you are receiving Special Service Disability Benefits and are awarded Social Security Disability or Railroad Retirement Disability Benefits, you can switch your Special Service Disability Benefits to Regular Disability Benefits. You must apply for Regular Disability Benefits within 60 days from the date of the Social Security Disability or Railroad Retirement Disability Benefits award letter.
Weigh your options carefully before you switch to Regular Disability Benefits. Once you switch from Special Service Disability Benefits to Regular Disability Benefits, your decision is final.