Planning ahead and maximizing your pension at retirement is an important financial decision. If you earned service credit before July 1, 1998, the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund offers an option to upgrade your service and increase your pension.
Your CTPF retirement pension is based on three items:
- the service credit you have earned
- the best four-year average annual salary in your last ten years of service
- a pension percentage
The 2.2 upgrade increases the retirement pension for members with service credit prior to July 1, 1998, by increasing the pension percentage. Service credit earned after July 1, 1998, is calculated using the pension percentage of 2.2%. For service credit earned before July 1998, the pension percentage can be as low as 1.67%. By taking advantage of the upgrade option, the 2.2% pension percentage will be used for all your service credit and your pension will increase.
