Can I repay a refund to restore service credits with PERA?
You can repay a PERA refund to regain credit for those years of service. You must be an active public employee contributing to PERA or another qualifying pension fund for a minimum of six months since your last refund to be eligible to make the repayment. If you have received multiple refunds from the Basic/Coordinated plan PLUS the Police and Fire Plan or Correctional Plan—you have the right to repay any or all of the plans, but you cannot choose which refund to repay within a plan. A repayment includes the initial refund amount you received, plus 8.5 percent interest, compounded annually. If you wish to restore only a portion of the service credit you forfeited in a plan, a partial repayment can be made if the following two requirements are met: 1) You forfeited a minimum of two years of service by taking the refund(s); and2) The repayment restores at least one-third of the total service credits you previously lost in the plan by taking the refund(s).
