Disability Plans Reporting

Disability Plans

Disability Plans refer to long-term disability income (LTDI) continuance plans and temporary total disability or temporary partial disability benefits under Alberta workers’ compensation legislation.

Members receiving disability plan benefits (disabled members) are considered active members who continue contributing to the plan and continue to earn pensionable service provided they remain employees.

A member receiving disability plan benefits is not eligible for a disability pension under the plan.

Disability Plan Service Contributions

Some employers assume liability for the employee portion of pension contributions for disabled members. In these cases, if a member starts receiving disability plan benefits there should not be interruptions in remitting contributions to the plan and disabled members continue to earn pensionable service.

Some employers do not assume liability for disabled members’ contributions.

In these cases when an employee starts receiving disability plan benefits employers should communicate the expectation of the member continuing contribution payments to the plan.

Disabled members are responsible for submitting their contribution payments to their employer. Upon receipt of the disabled member’s payment, the employer remits both the member contributions and matched employer contributions to the plan, and the disabled member continues to earn pensionable service.

When a disabled member does not pay for their contributions, the employer is not required to pay for and remit the disabled member’s portion or the employer’s portion of contributions to the plan, which would result in the disabled member having a shortfall in the required contributions to the pension plan, called a contribution deficiency, for the period of disability plan service.

Members have access to this online disability plan information, but if you need assistance in communicating this information to your employees, contact PSPP’s Stakeholder Representative.

Repaying Disability Plan Service Contributions

Contributions may be repaid on a cost shared contribution cost basis; however, the employer is not obligated to pay for the employer portion of contributions in these cases unless the member subsequently elects to repay their contributions.

A disabled member may initiate a Buyback Proposal to receive options to repay a portion or all of their contributions for periods of disability plan service by submitting a Service Record Contribution Based Application to PSPP:

• before or at their return to work
• within 30 days of terminating employment; or
• prior to retirement.

In these cases, the resulting costs in the Buyback Proposal will equal the contribution amounts the disabled member and employer would have paid, plus interest and there is no allotted limit to cost sharing contributions for the period of disability plan service.

However, disabled members are subject to repayment deadlines in their Buyback Proposal and deadlines if they terminate participation from the plan. If an election is not made by its deadline, disabled members may still pay for the period of disability plan service, but at a higher cost as the service will no longer be based on a cost shared contribution basis. If a disabled member is considering retirement and want to purchase any portion of service for the leave period, contributions must be repaid before their pension start date.

For information on disability plan service reporting, contact your Employer Services Representative.