You may remember that it turned out that UMass had not been deducting all the retirement contributions that they should have deducted from certain kinds of pay. The State Retirement Board said that employees would have to pay the money back. A coalition of unions representing UMass employees, including SHARE, argued to reduce/eliminate the amount people had to pay back, and the Retirement Board agreed.

UMass has informed us that the State Retirement Board is now sending out bills to employees who owe retirement contributions to the State.

It is most likely that you did not get a bill and you don’t need to worry about this at all. Only about 30 SHARE members ended up owing anything. In most cases, these 30 people owe a smaller amount than they were originally told. About 120 SHARE members, who were originally told that they would owe money, had the amount reduced to $0.

If you did get a bill, please continue reading. It means that the State Retirement Board believes that you owe them money. We want you to know what your options are.

You have 35 days to choose how to pay it back: installment plan, or all at once
If you don’t make a choice within 35 days, then you will owe more money
The Retirement Board has an Appeal Process – information about that will come with the bill

If you have questions

The University’s online FAQ has a lot of good information
For specific questions about your bill, you can call the State Retirement Board at 617-367-7770 or email MSRB@umassp.edu
Questions for the University can be directed to the HR Department at the University System Office at 774-455-7150
You can contact SHARE and we will help you get answers – call 508-929-4020 or email one of the SHARE staff