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41,500 take advantage of 55/25 plan

Sep 10, 2008 12:11 PM

UFT members have opted in! Some 41,500 members enrolled in the 55/25 early retirement plan by the Aug. 25 deadline.

Thousands of UFTers turned out to hear all about the 55/25 plan at informational meetings and read carefully the Q&As published in the New York Teacher and available on the UFT Web site.

They saw the value of this new retirement benefit and understood there will probably not be another opportunity like it. It took 12 years to achieve this hard-won piece of retirement legislation.

Under the retirement plan, New York City public school educators who have 25 years or more of service are able to retire at age 55 without a reduction in benefits.

Members knew it was too good an opportunity to miss and signed up in record numbers during the six-month enrollment period.

DOE employees and eligible charter school employees who enrolled as members of TRS or BERS after Feb. 27, 2008, the enactment date of the legislation, are automatically enrolled in a 55/27 plan that allows them to receive an unreduced pension after reaching age 55 with 27 years of service.