Refunds Before Retirement

Types of Refunds

You may be eligible for up to three types of refunds:

• Separation Refund — when you leave your IMRF employer before you retire.
• Voluntary Additional Contribution refund — if you have been making Voluntary Additional Contributions (VAC) you can take a refund of these contributions at any time. You can read more about these refunds on the Voluntary Additional Contributions page.
• Retirement Refund — refunds you may be eligible for at retirement if you retire with an IMRF pension. You can read more about these refunds on the Retirement Options and Refunds at Retirement page.

Taking a Separation Refund

Think carefully before taking a separation refund. You are not required to take a refund when you leave your IMRF employer. Leaving your money with IMRF can give you time to decide what to do with it. However, you will not receive interest when you apply for a separation refund, no matter how long you keep your contributions on deposit with IMRF.

If you take a refund:

• You lose all of the service credit you have earned 
• You give up your right to any retirement or disability benefits
• Your beneficiary(ies) will not be entitled to any death benefit  

Review your options carefully—it may make more financial sense for you to leave your contributions on deposit with IMRF, especially if:

• You have at least ten years of service credit. You are now eligible to receive a future lifelong IMRF pension. If you take a refund, you give up your future pension.
• You think you may return to work for an IMRF employer or Illinois reciprocal system and earn additional service credit toward a future pension.

When Can You Take a Separation Refund?

What are Your Refund Options?

If you decide to take a refund, you have two options on what to do with your money. Each option has different tax consequences:

How to Apply for Your Refund

To apply for a refund online, sign in to your Member Access account and follow the prompts. 

Paying Back a Refund

If you took a refund of your contributions and have returned to work for an IMRF employer, you may be able to buy back your service credit. You can buy back all, or a portion, of your service credit. Interest accumulates every year, so the longer you wait to pay back a refund, the more it will cost you.

To be eligible to apply to repay your refund, you must:

• Be currently participating in IMRF or another Illinois reciprocal system
• Have been participating in IMRF for at least two years following the date of your last refund.

To find out how much it would cost to repay refund and reinstate your service credit, you would complete an "Application to Reinstate Service Credit - Repaying a Refund" form (Available in Member Access) and IMRF will calculate your current cost.