Service credit is a factor used to determine retirement benefits for retirees. Through a long lifetime of bad credit credit cards and working double shifts, your hard work will (somewhat) pay off in the form of a service credit for retirement benefits. Service credit is based on how many hours you worked over your career, as reported by your employer / employers.

Retirees receive one month of service credit for every calendar month they earned a paycheck, for a total of 90 hours or more. There is no instance in which an employee can get two or more service credit months in one calendar month, regardless of previous employment status. For example, if you had two jobs that brought you up to more than 90 hours, you would only get credit for one of those jobs.

If you have received compensation for 70 hours or more, but do not reach 90 hours in one month, a half service credit month will be awarded. For months in which fewer than 70 hours have been worked, one-quarter service credit month will be given. When a person reaches retirement age, credit years will be figured by dividing the service credit months worked by 12. For example, a person may be hired on October 5th, 2008. They may then work full-time until August 19th, 2028. For the time worked, they will be given a service credit of 238.5 months.

Military members are also eligible for service credit, up to a period of five years. As long as all members pay into the member contributions according to the time period that was spent in the military, they can receive credit. These payments must be made before retirement comes, or within five years of resuming employment, whichever comes first. There are other qualifications as well. Service members must have worked in an employment program covered by the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) before they became an active duty service member. After being honorably discharged from the military, they would have to re-apply for employment with the same company that they left, within 90 days of separation.

For additional information, check into the Military Service Credit publication. Check the PSERS Plan 2 members section. There are special circumstances for service credit if a military member either dies or is totally incapacitated during active duty. In these cases, the prior military member, the surviving spouse, or dependents, can put in an application for interruptive military service credit. If this is the case, the only payments required will be the employee contribution.

For those who take an approved leave of absence during their working years, there is still a way to earn service credit for that time. You will be limited to two years of service credit towards any leave of absence you have taken, applicable for all years of your career. There are conditions for this, as you are required to return to your place of work and take up an eligible position under an employer who is PSERS-covered. Both employer and member contributions are required to be paid during the leave of absence, including applicable interest. These payments must be made within the last five years of coming back to service, or before retirement age.

If you have experienced a lifetime of struggling through bad credit credit cards or struggled to obtain zero interest credit cards or credit cards with rewards, discover a different way with service credit.