Category: Member News

The 2025 Annual Statements are now available in the MySCERS Portal for active and deferred members.

The Annual Statement provides account information such as the member’s plan and tier membership, reciprocal system(s), and cumulative retirement contribution and interest balance and years of service as of December 31, 2025.

Updated Annual Statements for Sacramento Area Sewer District (SacSewer) employees are not available. SCERS continues to work with SacSewer to resolve contribution and service credit data issues for employees who transferred to SacSewer from the County in December 2024.  The 2024 Annual Statements for SacSewer employees remain available on the MySCERS Portal and reflect pre-separation contribution and service credit data as of December 14, 2024.

Please note that SCERS is no longer mailing Annual Statements.  If you have not registered with MySCERS Portal, please go to my.scers.gov and click “Need to register?” to start your registration.

On February 18th, the SCERS Board of Retirement approved the following Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) levels effective April 2026, as recommended by the system’s actuary:

Miscellaneous Tier 1 and Safety Tier 1

• with retirement date between 4/1/1976 and 3/31/2026 =  2.0%
• with retirement date on or before 3/31/1976 = 4.0%

Miscellaneous Tiers 3, 4, and 5, and Safety Tiers 2, 3, and 4: 

• with retirement date on or before 3/31/2026 = 2.0%

The new benefit amount will be reflected in retirees’ monthly payment for April. The COLA benefit is based on the rate of inflation and the unique factors of your benefit tier and retirement year.

For more information, visit Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs).

The Sacramento County Employees’ Retirement System (SCERS) is processing contribution refunds for about 435 County employees who work the “7/12” shift. 

The refunds are due to past and present Miscellaneous Tier 5 employees who worked a 7/12 shift since April 2019.

The 7/12 shift refers to a work schedule comprised of seven, 12-hour shifts over a biweekly pay period for a total of 84 hours.  In August 2025, the SCERS Board of Retirement determined that the four additional hours worked by Miscellaneous Tier 5 employees over a traditional 80-hour biweekly pay period is considered overtime that cannot be counted in pension calculations. The SCERS Board directed that retirement contributions taken on the additional four hours of compensation be refunded to members.

Employees in Miscellaneous Tier 5 work in non-safety-designated positions and are subject to additional limits on pensionable compensation under the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PERPA). Employees in Safety tiers are not affected, nor are Miscellaneous employees in the pre-PEPRA legacy tiers who were generally hired before January 1, 2013.

SCERS completed the first phase of the correction process in January 2025, distributing refunds to approximately 85 active and deferred (former) employees in January 2025, averaging about $680 per refund.  The second phase includes an additional 350 members based on payroll data that SCERS recently received from the County.

For affected members who have retired, SCERS is processing contribution refunds and also re-calculating pensions prospectively after removing the disallowed compensation. Under recent legislation, AB 3025 enacted in 2024, SCERS is not recovering overpaid benefits from retirees; additionally, the employer (Sacramento County) is required to make a payment to the retiree equivalent to 20% of the present value difference in lifetime benefits between the original pension and the adjusted pension. In the first phase, three retired members received pension adjustments, with reductions in allowances ranging from $2 to $65 per month.

Members affected by the correction process will receive notices directly from SCERS with further details. If you have questions, please contact SCERS at 916-874-9119 or sacretire@saccounty.gov

Retiree 1099-R forms will be available through the SCERS member portal on January 30. If you haven’t yet registered for portal access, we encourage you to do so. For information about the member portal and how to register, go to my.scers.gov/Register.

Paper copies of 1099-Rs are scheduled to be mailed on January 30.  Please allow sufficient mail processing time of 5-6 business days before contacting SCERS regarding the tax forms.

SCERS is offering a Mid-Career webinar for SCERS members who are 10+ years away from retirement. This lunchtime webinar will take place on Wednesday, January 28 at noon and will be presented by SCERS only. Register here.

The Mid-Career webinar will provide information and answers to frequently asked questions about preparing for retirement well in advance. The webinar is scheduled from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

For more information, visit the Retirement Planning Webinars page here.

SCERS is excited to introduce the new Online Retirement Application, now available in the MySCERS Portal. This tool makes applying for retirement easier, faster, and more secure.

Instead of tracking down forms and mailing paperwork, members can now log into MySCERS, select “Apply for Service Retirement,” and complete the process online at their own pace. The system provides step-by-step guidance, helping to ensure nothing is missed.

Supervising Probation Officer John Rowland, the first member to use the feature, shared: “The online process
was a quick, easy, and non-stressful way to complete my application for retirement.”

Key benefits include:

• Built-in edits to reduce errors and missing information
• Secure document upload and confirmation
• Faster, streamlined processing

After submitting, SCERS staff carefully review each application. Most members receive their first retirement
payment within about 45 days (timelines may vary). A benefits specialist will reach out if more information is
needed, and members will receive updates along the way.

This launch is part of SCERS’ ongoing effort to modernize member services, with more secure online tools coming soon.