It is important to remember that benefits may take eight weeks to process from the date all required information is received by IMRF OR the date you are eligible to receive benefit effective date, whichever is later.
The information required to apply for a benefit may come from multiple sources, depending on your application. This may include information from your employer, a reciprocal retirement system, a doctor or more depending on the application. The time it takes to process an application does not begin until after all the required information is given to IMRF by each source.
For example, if you submit all the necessary documents to IMRF for your retirement three months before you retire, it may still take eight weeks from your retirement date to process your retirement application and for you to receive your first pension payment.
This also means that if you begin sending all necessary documents to IMRF for your retirement on the day you retire, and IMRF doesn’t receive all necessary information until four weeks after your retirement date, then it may take eight more weeks to process your retirement. So, in this scenario, you should not expect your first payment until 12 weeks after your retirement date.
However, you will be paid retroactively to the date of your pension is effective, typically the first of the month following your termination date. It is important that you budget for the time it takes to process your retirement benefits.
This processing timeframe is the same for all applications for benefits (i.e. retirement, disability, death benefits), as well as refunds.
Helpful Hints About Applying for Benefits & Refunds:
- Create a Member Access Account! In Member Access, you can submit documents electronically and get updates about additional information that may be needed.
- Don’t want to create a Member Access Account? Call IMRF at 1-800-ASK-IMRF (275-4673) to request the documents that you need.
- Make sure to ask IMRF to set your communication preference to paper to ensure you get updates about your application.
- Remember that delays in the postal service can increase the time it takes to get all the required documents to IMRF, which means the eight-week processing period may start later.
How to Apply for Benefits
Learn more about how to apply for your benefits by going to the “Members” tab at the top of the page, choose your pension tier, then select the benefit you want to learn about.