Wondering when you’ll see your cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2023? The answer is now.

COLAs are included in your August 1 benefit payment if you are a PERS pension benefit recipient.

The percentage you will receive can depend on a few factors, including your membership type, when you earned service/retirement credit, and your retirement date. Membership types are Tier One, Tier Two, and the Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP).

To learn what percentage of COLA you will receive and how COLAs are determined, read our cost-of-living adjustments webpage.

Thank you for the more than 7,700 responses to our 2023 member satisfaction survey. Your feedback will help us to improve our services and how we assist you.

Full analysis will be presented to the PERS Board in September. Members can attend board meetings in person or via webinar. Audio recordings of the meetings are subsequently posted on the PERS Board Information webpage.

If you missed this year’s survey, don’t worry. You can share your feedback with PERS at any time.

If you’re a tax remedy-eligible Tier One member living in Oregon, you might receive a letter about your tax remedy status this fall.

PERS mails notices each year to tax remedy recipients about changes in their tax remedy status. For example, you could receive a letter if you changed your residency status from the previous tax year or filed an extension on your 2022 state income taxes with the Oregon Department of Revenue.

Each fall, PERS works with Revenue to determine residency based on income tax returns for the previous year.

If your tax remedy status is unchanged, or you are not eligible for tax remedy relief, you will not receive a letter.

Tax remedy relief is not available to Tier Two or Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan retirees.

Under Oregon law, only eligible Tier One members receive annual increases in their benefit payments to offset the state income taxes withheld from PERS benefits.

More information about tax remedy and how to update your residency status is available on our Tax Remedy Information page.

If you plan to work for a PERS-participating employer after retirement, check out the applicable rules on our Senate Bill (SB) 1049 webpage.

SB 1049 (2019) simplified some previous work-after-retirement rules as of January 1, 2020. Those rules will now continue through December 31, 2034, based on House Bill 2296 (2023).

PERS is not involved in hiring decisions between retirees and employers. Whether a PERS-participating employer hires you, or places any limits on you as a PERS retiree, is between you and your employer.

By Kevin Olineck
PERS Director

Administering retirement benefits is not a static endeavor.

Changes to the investment mixes in some Individual Account Program (IAP) target-date funds (TDF) are coming in January 2024. These changes are the result of regular reviews by Oregon State Treasury staff and consultants who helped design the initial TDFs and who continue to advise Treasury on how they should evolve. These reviews ensure the TDFs meet the retirement needs of members now and in the future.

Similarly, the PERS Board oversees regular reviews of the plans they oversee.

For example, a biennial review is conducted by the board on the assumptions and methods used in actuarial valuations of PERS plans. Actuarial valuations estimate a plan’s financial position at a specific point in time to determine the plan’s financial obligations and funded status.

In its biennial review, the board works with a consulting firm, Milliman, to assess and update actuarial assumptions and methods as needed so that they accurately represent current economic conditions (e.g., inflation and salary increases) and long-term investment projections.

They also compare the plan’s “experience” — a snapshot that includes the current rate of new member enrollments, terminations, retirements, deaths, and disability retirements — to current assumptions. Regular reviews and updates help ensure that forecasts of PERS financial health are accurate and that the plans will be able to meet their obligations to PERS members.

The board’s biennial review occurs in odd-numbered years and spans multiple board meetings, allowing the board adequate time to consider any actuarial revisions. The board typically approves any changes at their fall meeting.

This year, 2023, is another odd-numbered year, meaning the board is currently conducting such a review process. Any changes the board makes to actuarial assumptions and methods this September will be used for two years’ worth of actuarial valuations: one for the year ending December 31, 2022, which will be completed in fall 2023, and another for the year ending December 31, 2023, which will be completed in fall 2024.

The completed 2023 valuation results will then be used to set overall member and employer contribution rates for 2025-27. These contribution rates are what the board uses to help balance the PERS funding equation (see the graphic above) and ensure PERS, the agency, can fulfill its mission of paying the right person the right benefit at the right time.

Don’t be a stranger! Keep your information with PERS up to date, and mail or fax your forms to us in a timely manner. Find the forms you need online.

ADDRESS CHANGES: PERS Member Services cannot update addresses by phone or email for security reasons. Use Online Member Services or the Information Change Request form to make updates. To change your address with the PERS Health Insurance Program, you will need to use the PHIP Address Change Form.

DIRECT DEPOSIT: Forms received by the 15th of any month will typically be processed and effective for the following month’s benefit payment. However, processing of direct deposits can take up to 60 days; until processing is complete, PERS will mail your benefit payment to your address on record.

TAX WITHHOLDING: Updating your address or providing residency status certification does not automatically change your withholdings. Submit a W-4P form (Tier One/Tier Two or OPSRP) to update withholdings for your PERS pension and IAP payments. W-4P forms received by the third week of the month typically will be processed in time for the following month’s benefit payment. 

DIVORCE: Contact Member Services about divorce and PERS benefits.

ACCOUNT ACCESS: The Authorization to Release Account Information form allows you to authorize a third party to obtain information regarding your PERS account or benefits. The Special Power of Attorney for PERS form gives the person(s) you designate the power to make decisions for PERS-related matters on your behalf.

DEATH NOTICES: After a PERS member dies, a representative should contact Member Services as soon as possible. Failure to report a death in a timely manner may result in having to pay back retirement payments and may delay payments to the deceased member's beneficiaries. PERS will require the date of death, city and state where the death occurred, a photocopy of the death certificate, and a spouse or personal representative contact information.  For PERS Health Insurance Program (PHIP) members, a representative also should contact PHIP as soon as possible to report the death.