Credited service
The years PSERS counts toward your pension. A full year is at least 180 days and 5 hours a day, or 1,100 hours; you can't earn more than one year in a school year.
Deferred (vested) retirement
Leaving school work while vested and starting your pension later. Your account keeps earning 4% a year.
Eligibility point
Credit for a school year of service (a full year of service earns one point); used for Premium Assistance and, in the DC plan, for vesting employer contributions.
Final average salary
The average of your three highest school years' salaries (T-C to T-F), or five highest (T-G, T-H).
Frozen annuity
What happens to your pension when you return to public school work without an exception; payments stop and the account value is frozen until you retire again.
Health Options Program (HOP)
PSERS's voluntary group health insurance for retirees and their families, paid for by participants' premiums.
Membership class
The group (T-C, T-D, T-E, T-F, T-G, T-H or DC) that sets your multiplier, your retirement ages and your contribution rate. It's printed on your Statement of Account.
MSLA (Maximum Single Life Annuity)
The formula benefit for your life only; other options are reductions of it.
Multiple service
Combining your PSERS and State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) service into one benefit, if you elect it in time.
Multiplier
The percent of your final average salary you earn for each year of service: 2.0% (T-C, T-E), 2.5% (T-D, T-F), 1.25% (T-G) or 1.0% (T-H).
Option 4 (customized option)
A monthly benefit of your own design that PSERS approves, such as a 75% survivor benefit.
Premium Assistance
A payment added to your monthly check to help with your own health insurance premium, if you meet the service or age rules.
Present Value
The total value of your retirement account used to fund your lifetime payments, or paid to a beneficiary if a vested member dies in service.
Rule of 92
Normal retirement for T-E and T-F when your age plus service totals 92 and you have at least 35 years. T-G has a Rule of 97.
Shared risk/shared gain
For T-E to T-H, your DB contribution rate can go up or down by 0.50% or 0.75% every three years within a set range, depending on investment results.
Special early retirement (55/25)
Retiring at 55 with 25 years (57 with 25 for T-G), with a cut of only 1/4% for each month you are short of normal retirement.
Statement of Account
The yearly statement PSERS sends active, inactive and vested members. It shows your contributions, interest, credited service, wages, any debts, and an estimate of your monthly benefit if you're eligible. Your membership class is listed on it.
Superannuation
PSERS's word for normal (full, unreduced) retirement.
Survivor annuitant
The one person you name under Option 2, Option 3 or a customized option to receive a lifetime benefit after you die.
Vested
Having enough service to keep a right to a pension if you leave: 5 years (T-C, T-D) or 10 years (T-E to T-H), or the age-based alternatives.
Withdrawal of contributions and interest
Taking some or all of your own contributions and interest as a lump sum at retirement, which lowers your monthly check for life.
No terms match. Try a shorter word.
Plain English, not the official wordingThese definitions put PSERS's publications into everyday words. They aren't PSERS's official definitions, and they aren't legal or financial advice. PSERS decides your benefit.
Source: PSERS Active Member Handbook, Current pa.gov edition (PDF revised Sept. 2023), pp. 5-6, 8, 14-15, 18-22, 28. Also: PSERS web page Health Insurance. Also: Retired Member Handbook (3/2014), p. 17. Also: Retirement Exit Counseling 2025-2026, PDF pp. 23-24. Also: Let's Talk About PSERS Death Benefits (Mar. 2025). Last reviewed .