An employee's annuity may be recomputed to include additional railroad service and compensation and social security wages which the employee earns after the beginning date of the employee annuity. The annuity is recomputed only if the recomputation increases the annuity rate by more than $1 a month or results in a lump-sum payment of more than $5. Before a recomputed rate can be paid, the employee must stop working in the railroad industry. A recomputed tier I component is payable beginning with January 1 of the year after the year in which the wages or compensation are earned or (provided the employee is age 62 or disabled), in the case of railroad compensation, in the year after the employee stops working in the railroad industry. A recomputed tier II component is payable from the date the annuity is reinstated after the employee has ceased railroad work.
(a) Tier I. A recomputation is made if any social security wages or railroad compensation for a year in which the employee returned to work are higher than the earnings for a year included in the previous computation of the tier I PIA, as shown in part 225 of this chapter. The higher earnings are used instead of the lower earnings for the earlier year to determine the average monthly wage or average indexed monthly earnings. Part 225 of this chapter describes how a PIA is recomputed.
(b) Tier II. The additional service is added to the years of service previously used in computing the tier II rate. The additional compensation is used to recompute the average monthly compensation, if the compensation for a month in which the employee returned to railroad service is higher than the compensation for a month used in the previous computation of the average monthly compensation. The higher monthly compensation is used instead of the lower compensation for a previous month to determine the new average monthly compensation as shown in § 226.62 of this part. The increased years of service and average monthly compensation are used in computing a new tier II rate, as shown in § 226.11 of this part.
Example:An employee receiving an annuity which began on January 1, 1992, returns to railroad service for 10 months in 1992 and 2 months in 1993. He stops work on February 20, 1993. He has earnings of $34,500.00 in 1992 and $5,200.00 in 1993. His tier II rate effective January 1, 1992, was based on 26 years (312 months) of service and an average monthly compensation of $2,995 ($179,700 ÷ 60). The additional 12 months of service increases the year of service used in computing the tier II rate to 27 (312 months + 12 months = 324 months ÷ 12 = 27). The 1992 earnings of $34,500.00 are used instead of 1987 earnings of $32,700.00. The 1993 earnings are not used because they are lower than the earnings for previous months used in computing the average monthly compensation. The additional $1,800.00 in earnings increases the average monthly compensation to $3,025 ($179,100 + $1,800.00 = $181,500.00 ÷ 60). The initial tier II amount is increased from $545.09 (26 × $2,995 × .007) to $571.73 (27 × $3,025 × .007), effective with the date of annuity reinstatement, March 1, 1993.
The annuity of a spouse or divorced spouse is recomputed to use the employee's recomputed tier I PIA and tier II rate, if the recomputation results in a lump-sum payment of more than $5 or an increase in the spouse or divorced spouse annuity rate of more than $1 a month. The spouse or divorced spouse annuity rate is recomputed beginning with the same date the employee's annuity rate is recomputed.