Glossary of Terms



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Glossary of Terms

Account Status:
See Member Account Status..

Active Member:
A member who is actively working and contributing to the retirement plan.

Beneficiary:
A person designated by a member to receive a cash payment of a deceased member's account or monthly benefit payments from NPERS.

COBRA
A federal law that allows an employee losing his/her medical coverage to purchase from their employer, at full cost and for up to 18 months, the same coverage offered to active employees.

Contingent Beneficiary:
A contingent beneficiary is identified by a member and receives the member's benefits upon the death of the member and all primary beneficiaries.

Contributions:
Money withheld from a member's paycheck to contribute towards the member's retirement. The amount that is contributed is based upon a percentage of the member's salary (excluding fringe benefits).

Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA):
A cost of living increase may be granted to retired members, depending on which plan the member belongs.

Creditable Service: See Service Credit.

Death Benefit:
Your contributions on account and any benefits due under the plan will be distributed according to your most recent Beneficiary Designation form.

Deferred Retirement Benefit
A member who ceases employment prior to retirement age may elect to leave contributions within the system and begin collecting a retirement benefit once retirement age is reached. Refer to plan booklets for specific details.

Eligible Wages:
The wages earned by the member while working for an employer within the plan that are used to calculate the member's contributions.

Employee Contributions:
The contributions that are withheld from an employee's paycheck and contributed to the plan.

Employer Contributions:
The contributions that are made by employers on behalf of the employee and contributed to the plan.

Employer Reported Wages:
Same as Eligible Wages. Top of Page

Final Average Compensation:
The average of the three highest 12 month periods of compensation, regardless of when they occur.

Inactive Member:
A member who is no longer employed in a public position (by a member agency) but has not withdrawn contributions.

Member:
A person who is or has been employed by an NPERS member agency and has retirement contributions on account. See Active Member and Inactive Member.

Member Account:
An account with NPERS that keeps track of the contributions for a member.

Member Account Status:
This is an indication of your membership status with NPERS. An account Status may be "Active", "Inactive", "Refunded", "Service retired" or "Disability retired".

Member Agency:
A public agency which has joined the retirement system by a legally binding agreement with The State of Nebraska.

Optional Service Credit:
Service credit that a member can purchase.

PDF (Portable Document Format):
PDF is short for Portable Document Format, a file format developed by Adobe Systems. PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To view a file in PDF format, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free application distributed by Adobe Systems.

Position Code:
The code used by NPERS for an employee's current position.

Primary Beneficiary:
A primary beneficiary is identified by a member and receives the member's benefits upon his/her death.

Public Employee:
An employee of a member agency.

Purchased Service Credit:
Service credit purchased to increase retirement income or allow earlier retirement.

QDRO:
A QDRO (Qualified Domestic Relations Order) is a divorce order that provides instructions to NPERS as to how to pay benefits awarded by the court to an ex-spouse.

Recipient:
An NPERS member, the survivor of a member, or a person on disability retirement who is receiving monthly benefits from NPERS. Also called benefit recipient.

Report Begin Date:
The beginning date of the payroll period being reported or corrected.

Report End Date:
The ending date of the payroll period being reported or corrected.

Retiree:
One who has retired from active working life and is collecting retirement benefits.

Retiree Account:
An account that a retiree holds with NPERS. The account keeps track of the contributions that person as a member paid into the system and the benefit payments made to the person as a retiree.

Retirement Benefit:
A payment made to a retiree of the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement System.

Retirement Eligibility:
The laws governing your retirement differ according to your status as a state employee, public school employee, county employee, state patrol employee, or a judge. Refer to the member handbook for your particular plan.

Nebraska Statutes:
State laws that, among other things, govern the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement System.

Service Credit:
The amount of service earned by a member of the School, Judges, or State Patrol plans while working for that employer and contributing to retirement. Service credit counts toward the calculation of the member's benefit amount upon retirement.

Status Date:
The date the employee's status became effective.

Vested:
The number of years a member must contribute to a plan to be eligible to retain the employer matching contributions or to be eligible to apply for a benefit; depending on the plan they belong. Refer to the member handbook for your particular plan.

Wage & Contribution Report:
The manner in which employee information is reported to NPERS. A Wage & Contribution Report includes wages earned, contributions paid, and time worked.

Wage & Contribution Report Status:
This is an indication of the status of a Wage and Contribution report.

Added: Your W&C report has been added to the system

Suspended: We have validated the file and found errors in one or more member records

Posted: Your W&C report has successfully posted

Rejected: Your W&C report has been rejected.

Years of Service:
See Service Credit

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