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Salary continuation benefit

If you are enrolled in the Death and Disability Plan, the Board pays a salary continuation benefit to your beneficiaries if, when you die, you are an active, disabled, or retired member, or vested in the Defined Benefit Pension Plan but no longer working for a PC(USA) employer.

Amount of benefit

The salary continuation benefit amount depends on your employment status when you die.

If you are an active employee or disabled when you die, your benefit equals the death benefit basis,* payable in 12 equal monthly installments after you die.

If you are retired when you die, your benefit is designed to assist with funeral expenses; the amount is tied to your retirement date:

  • Within three years of your retirement, your benefit is based on the death benefit basis* at retirement and is reduced by one-twelfth every three months after your retirement date.
  • After you are retired for three years, the benefit is $10,000, payable in a one-time payment.

If you were vested in the Defined Benefit Pension Plan and did not begin receiving pension benefits when you ended employment, your beneficiaries may be eligible for a benefit of $10,000, if you met the Rule of 70 at termination. If you were receiving a pension benefit on January 1, 2007, your survivors may also be eligible for a benefit of $10,000. See the plan document for details.

Requirements of the Rule of 70

  • You must be age 55 or older when you terminate service with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
  • You must be an active Death and Disability Plan participant with at least five years of plan participation.
  • The sum of your age and years of plan participation at termination must equal 70 or more.

*The death benefit basis is the greater of the pension participation basis (annual effective salary or 25 percent of the congregational ministers’ median, whichever is more, up to the IRS maximum) or the applicable median (prorated for part-time employment). The IRS maximum for 2023 is $330,000. The limit for 2024 will be published when released by the IRS.