Total and Partial Unemployment TPU 460.55 - Fact Finding Guide

Pension or Retirement Pay

  1. What is the nature and purpose of the payment?
  2. Is it based on the prior work of the claimant?
  3. What is the relationship between the payments and base-period employers? if the payment is not issued directly by an employer (e.g., union-paid pension), did a base-period employer contribute to the fund from which the pension is paid?
  4. Did the claimant make any contributions to the fund from which the pension payments are made?
  5. Have deductions been made from the pension award? Examples would be medical insurance premiums, federal income tax, court-ordered child support payments, and amounts to offset prior overpayments. If so, these amounts would have to be added to the claimant’s payment to obtain the potentially deductible pension income.
  6. Are payments made periodically or in a lump sum?
  7. Did the claimant first meet the minimum qualifications for the pension (such as age and/or years of service) while performing services for the employer after the beginning of the base period? It may be necessary to obtain facts concerning the minimum qualifications for the type of pension the claimant is receiving.
  8. Did the claimant’s performance of service after the beginning of the base period increase the amount of pension for which he/she would have otherwise been entitled? In may cases, it will be necessary to calculate the pension award the claimant would have received had he/she retired prior to the beginning of the base period and, then, to compare that figure with the claimant’s actual pension payment.

NOTE: If it is determined that the work claimant performed after the beginning of the base period was necessary to meet the minimum qualifications for receipt of the pension, it is not necessary to also calculate whether the work increased the amount of the pension.