This Month's News
Note for Retirees with the City’s Health Insurance
As required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the City of Milwaukee, as the health plan sponsor, sends out Form 1095-B to retirees who have health insurance coverage through the City. This form is mailed separately from your 1099-R form and will be mailed at the end of January 2025. Please wait until February 15, 2025 before you contact this office for a replacement. Retirees who receive a non-taxable benefit, but have health insurance will also receive this form. Please note that the amounts listed on this form will only include premium deductions for the City’s health plans. If you have any other insurance coverage being deducted from your pension payment, including the City’s dental insurance coverage, please retain your December 2024 payment stub for those year-to-date totals.
1099-Rs for 2024
If your pension benefit is subject to Federal income tax, the 1099-R for the pension benefits paid to you in calendar year 2024 will be mailed by the end of January 2025 in accordance with IRS regulations. If you are a recent retiree and received a GPS lump-sum bonus during 2024, you will receive a separate 1099-R for that portion of the bonus you rolled over. Any portion taken in cash will be included with the 1099-R containing your monthly annuity payments. If you receive multiple benefits from ERS (e.g. your own retirement benefit as well as a survivorship benefit from the account of your deceased spouse), you will receive a separate 1099-R for each benefit you received in 2024. Your 1099-R will be mailed to the address on file with this office. If you want this form mailed to another address, you must inform the ERS office in writing no later than January 10, 2025. Please note that all 1099-Rs will be mailed on the same date, but they may arrive at your address at different times. The post office will be delivering millions of these forms at about the same time, so there is a possibility your form might be delayed in the mail.
Important: Do NOT make an appointment with your tax preparer/accountant until you receive your 1099-R form. If you have not received your form 1099-R, please wait until February 15, 2025 before you contact this office for a replacement. No replacements will be processed before that date. In addition, replacement 1099-Rs are not processed on a walk-in basis. Requests are processed in the order received.
2025 CPI COLA Factor is 2.7494%
(This only affects certain Police and Fire Retirees)
Every December, the ERS calculates the rate to be used to determine COLA factors granted to most protective service members based on the Consumer Price Index – All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). In November of 2024, the index was 315.493 as compared with 307.051 in November of 2023, an increase of 2.7494%.
Accordingly, COLA increases granted in calendar year 2025 to those protective service members whose COLA is determined by the CPI-U will be 2.7494%.
The CPI COLA is calculated using the Consumer Price Index – All Urban Consumers data. The CPI statistics can be found on the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics website.