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GARS members have recently been targeted by a variety of phishing scams, including emails, phone calls, and text messages that attempt to impersonate or imply affiliation with GARS.

Emails
The fraudulent emails may provide links, including DocuSign, and allege to provide the member with the option to sign up and receive their monthly GARS benefit payments four days early by providing personal financial information, including bank account information.  GARS does not offer an early benefit payment option or request personal or banking information by email or use of DocuSign.  Please note that our emails are always sent from an srs.illinois.gov email address.

Phone calls and Text messages
Several members have recently reported receiving unsolicited phone calls and text messages from individuals claiming to be associated with GARS.  These individuals initially contact the member by phone call or text message and attempt to set up counseling appointments with the member, generally through a follow-up email and/or text message.  These phone calls have been received on State landlines and State issued cell phones.  GARS does not contract with anyone outside of the agency to contact members about retirement counseling appointments or other financial services. GARS does not cold call members for retirement consultations, and only schedules retirement counseling appointments at the request of the member.

If you receive a suspicious email, call, or text message that purports to be GARS that you suspect is a scam, please report this activity to the GARS call center at 217-785-7444. Information that you provide can help GARS prevent and detect schemes that impact our members. 

GARS Tier 1 Optional Service Credit


NOTE: All optional credit must be purchased prior to retirement. See the Tax-Deferring Optional Service Purchases Fact Sheet for more information.

Service credit starts with the first day you become a contributing member. Your service during any fraction of a month is considered a month of service. General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) members may qualify to purchase additional service credit. The cost may include employee and employer contributions plus interest. GARS will require documentation to determine eligibility and provide estimate costs.

Tax-Deferring Optional Service Purchases

GARS allows members to tax-defer optional service credit purchases through payroll deduction. This lets members defer taxation until they retire. The tax-deferred withholding is made through an irrevocable payroll agreement for the total service credit purchase amount. GARS members may also transfer funds from their deferred compensation account to purchase permissive service credit or repay a refund.

Service credit is granted only after a refund or service purchase is paid in full. If the member dies, a partial service credit may be granted based on contributions and interest paid on the date of death.

In the case of retirement, termination or absences of more than one year, the member can choose to make an after-tax lump sum payment for the balance due, or the contributed amount can be refunded with taxes withheld and reported as income in that calendar year. Any after-tax lump sum payment must be made no later than 30 days after the member has been notified by GARS of the amount due.

Rollovers

You may rollover money from another qualified pension plan, an individual retirement account (IRA), 403b or 457 containing money from a qualified total distribution to purchase optional service credit or repay a refund. Contact GARS to request required forms needed to process a rollover.

To inquire about your eligibility to establish additional service credit, contact GARS at (217) 782-8500 or email gars@srs.illinois.gov. You will be notified in writing of any amount due and the credit that may be established.

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