Updated Form SSA-1945 Available

The Social Security Administration has released an updated version of Form SSA-1945, the Statement Concerning Your Employment in a Job Not Covered by Social Security, due to the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA).

Earlier versions of SSA-1945 discussed the effect of the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset on an employee's potential future benefits. The SSFA eliminated the reduction of benefits for individuals entitled to certain pensions from work not covered by Social Security, starting January 2024.

However, it did not remove the requirement for state and local government employers to provide a statement to employees hired Jan. 1, 2005, or later in jobs not covered by Social Security. The updated form explains to an employee that non-covered earnings will not be used to determine eligibility or to calculate the amount of potential future benefits.

Moving forward, all employers must use this updated form for new hires. New forms are not required for existing OPERS members. If you have further questions, contact Employer Services for assistance at 1-888-400-0965 or employeroutreach@opers.org.

Access Form SSA-1945

Annual Conversion Plan

What is an annual conversion plan?

An annual conversion plan allows employees to convert unused vacation, sick or personal leave into cash. OPERS must approve annual conversion plans for earnable salary purposes prior to the issuance of such payments. If conversion payments are not intended to be reported to OPERS as earnable salary, then no approval would be necessary.

Basic rules for an annual conversion plan are:

  • Plan cannot be discriminatory. If you do not wish to offer it to all employees, those included or excluded must be named in the ordinance by job title or job classification only. Do not mention any employee by name.
  • The maximum amount of converted vacation, sick or personal leave that can be considered earnable salary is the amount the employee earns in one calendar year, less any amount taken during the calendar year. To be considered earnable salary the leave also must have been earned in the calendar year it was converted. This concept is considered the LIFO method (last in, first out). The only exception is that leave conversion may occur in January for the prior calendar year. In this case the amount considered earnable salary would be the amount of leave earned in the prior year minus the amount of leave taken in the prior year. A payout date in January is the only way to affect an OPERS approved conversion plan that allows employees to have the potential to convert the entire amount they earn in a year provided they have not used any leave the prior year.
  • The plan cannot restrict the number of times employees are eligible to take advantage of the plan. An employee cannot be limited to the number of occurrences of conversion; ex., conversion can only be done three times over the course of employment.
  • The plan must be accessible to eligible employees no less frequently than annually. Budget restraints cannot dictate usage of plans. In other words, you cannot decide from year-to-year whether you will offer a conversion plan. It must be offered on an ongoing basis. Please state in your plan when this conversion will occur if a month is designated.
  • For conversion leave to be considered earnable salary for retiring or terminating employees, the termination date would have to occur in the month of the leave payout of your annual conversion plan or later for the member to take advantage of the conversion. Only the leave accrued in that calendar year may be converted. Please keep in mind; payments made at termination for accrued leave are not earnable salary. Conversion payments are only made when your policy indicates and cannot be changed to accommodate a retiring or terminating employee.

A Conversion plan template is available for your convenience by contacting OPERS Employer Services.
To learn more about the requirements for annual conversion plans, visit the Employer Educational Opportunities page of opers.org and register for a webinar.

Reporting Seasonal or Intermittent Employees

Summer is right around the corner and with it comes an influx of seasonal or intermittent hires. Below are a few things to keep in mind when reporting seasonal hires.

Things to keep in mind:

  • Employers are required to ensure withholding and remitting retirement contributions are processed accurately.
  • Consider seasonal employees just like any new employee—this means you'll need to:
    • Complete and submit the Personal History Record (Form A) within 30 days of the employee's first day worked for which retirement contributions are withheld.
    • If the seasonal employee is a re-employed retiree you will need to complete the Notice of Re-employment or Contract Services of an OPERS or Other System Benefit Recipient (SR-6) form.
  • If a seasonal employee is returning, a new Form A does not need to be completed if the employee is returning within a year.
  • Report both new and returning employees with a Pay Period Begin (PPB) code of S for seasonal/intermittent on the Contributions Report on which the employee is listed.

When the employee terminates for the season:

  • Report final contributions with a Pay Period End (PPE) code of Q (quit).
  • If the employee will be returning next year, or intermittently, and you consider them still to be working for you, report the final contribution code the same as the PPB code of S.
  • It is especially important to remit the proper PPE code for re-employed retirees as there may be a direct impact on the retiree's ability to receive an HRA allowance.

GASB 68 and new GASB 75 Information:
Coming to ECS in June

The GASB 68 pension and new GASB 75 health care, or OPEB, information will be available on ECS in June 2025. If you're an employer who has registered for ECS and has been given the GASB role by the delegated administrator at your place of employment, you will be able to access information on the net pension liability as of Dec. 31, 2024, the new net OPEB liability and related activity. While OPERS is not required to provide this information, we continue to understand the importance of partnering with employers, providing the information, and assisting them in complying with these complex accounting standards.

If you have trouble accessing the information, contact Employer Services for assistance at 1-888-400-0965 or employeroutreach@opers.org.

Certifications of Final Payroll

When completing Certifications of Final Payroll (LR-2, SRF85, and DRF85) on ECS, keep the following in mind:

  • Ensure that the Final Earnable Salary Date matches the last day the employee earned wages – this could be the last day the employee physically worked, or it could be a vacation or sick day that was used (not payout of unused time), or it could be a payment for an employer sponsored disability plan. If you are unsure if an amount is considered earnable salary, please contact us for clarification.
  • Ensure that the Final Reporting Period End Date matches the last day of the reporting month during which the final earnings will be reported.
  • We frequently receive inquiries about the part of the form that requires a "Yes" or "No" response to the following: "The employee will terminate (or has terminated) their covered employment." We define termination of employment as an employee terminating all employment with the public employer. If your employee is still working for your entity but is no longer contributing to OPERS because they no longer have earnable salary or are now contributing to another retirement system, the employee has not terminated employment, and you should respond "No" to the question. In addition, if the employee is retiring with another entity and continuing employment with your entity, you should respond "No" to the question and include a remark in the comments box to indicate that the member will retire with another entity.

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It is your responsibility to be certain that OPERS has your current physical and e-mail address on file. If OPERS is not made aware of address changes, we cannot guarantee that you will receive important information pertaining to your OPERS account. This publication is written in plain language for use by public employers who are subject to coverage under the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. It is not intended as a substitute for the federal or state law, namely the Ohio Revised Code, the Ohio Administrative Code, or the Internal Revenue Code, nor will its interpretation prevail should a conflict arise between it and the Ohio Revised Code, Ohio Administrative Code, or Internal Revenue Code. Rules governing the retirement system are subject to change periodically either by statute of the Ohio General Assembly, regulation of the Ohio Public Employees Retirement Board, or regulation of the Internal Revenue Code. If you have questions about this material, please contact our office or seek legal advice from your attorney. OPERS is not required to provide health care coverage to retirees or their dependents and will only do so at the discretion of the Board of Trustees.