NYCERS Disability Retirement Tier 4: Eligibility, Benefits, and Filing

If you’re a Tier 4 member of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System who can no longer perform your job because of a physical or mental condition, NYCERS disability retirement for Tier 4 members gives you a pension before normal retirement age. You generally need 10 years of credited service to qualify, unless the disability came from an on-the-job accident, in which case no minimum service is required. The benefit is calculated as 1.66% of your Final Average Salary multiplied by your years of service, with a floor of one-third of FAS for accident-based claims.

Who Qualifies

Tier 4 covers civilian members who joined NYCERS after July 27, 1976, under the Coordinated Retirement Plan established by Article 15 of the New York Retirement and Social Security Law. To file for a disability pension, you need at least 10 years of credited service, with a minimum of five years of membership service.¹

The one exception matters a great deal for newer employees: no minimum service applies if the disability resulted from an accident sustained in city service that was not caused by your own willful negligence.²

NYCERS recognizes two categories of disability retirement. Ordinary disability covers any condition, work-related or not, that prevents you from performing the routine duties of your job title. Accidental disability is reserved for incapacitation that is the natural and proximate result of an accident sustained in city service.¹ The accidental category carries a higher minimum benefit.

Tier 4 has several plan variants (62/5, 57/5, 55/25, and the 50/25 physically taxing plan), but the 10-year threshold, the accident exception, and the benefit formula below apply the same way across all of them. Plan variant mainly affects your service retirement, not your disability pension.

How Much You’ll Receive

Disability benefits use a different formula than standard service retirement. The calculation depends on your age at retirement, your credited service, and your Final Average Salary.

Final Average Salary

FAS is the greater of your average annual wages during any three consecutive calendar years or the final 36 months immediately preceding your retirement date.³ Salary above statutory limits in any included year is excluded.

If You’re Under Age 60

You receive the greater of two calculations. The actual-service calculation is 1.66% of FAS times your years of credited service. The projected-service calculation is 1.66% of FAS times the years you would have accrued had you worked through age 60, capped at one-third of FAS.²

Projected service matters most for younger members with few years on the job, because it credits time you would have worked. If the disability came from an on-duty accident, the minimum is one-third of FAS regardless of how long you served.²

If You’re 60 or Older

With fewer than 20 years of credited service, you receive the equivalent of what you would have been paid at age 62, not to exceed one-third of FAS. With 20 or more years, you receive 1.66% of FAS times your credited service.²

Enhanced Benefit for Uniformed Sanitation

Uniformed sanitation members who qualify for accidental disability receive three-quarters of FAS, in lieu of any other disability allowance, when incapacitated as a direct result of an on-duty accident not caused by willful negligence.⁴

A Note on the 57/5 Plan

If you’re in the 57/5 program, your disability benefit may be reduced by an actuarial formula to account for any deficiency in Additional Member Contributions.⁵

When You Must File

You have to be in one of the following statuses when you file:

On the payroll;
Within 90 days of your last day paid;
On approved medical leave or Workers’ Compensation; or
Within 12 months of termination, if you were on approved medical leave before being terminated.⁶²

Missing all four windows generally forecloses the claim, so timing matters as much as medical documentation.

Forms and How to Submit

NYCERS publishes tier-specific “Disability Kits” on its website. For Tier 4, the central application is Form #604. Every kit also includes:

Form #801, instructions for members filing for disability retirement;
Form #606, Physician’s Report of Disability;
Form #608, General Authorization for Medical Information;
Form #609, questionnaire for disability retirement applicants; and
Form #615, Authorization for Release of Information.⁷

If your condition is World Trade Center–related, you’ll also need NYCERS Form #622 (the WTC Notice of Participation) along with the relevant New York State Workers’ Compensation form.⁷

You can submit through a MyNYCERS account, which NYCERS describes as the fastest method, by mail to the Disability Retirement Services Division at 335 Adams Street in Brooklyn, in person by appointment, or by fax.⁶

What Happens After You File

A Case Manager is assigned to your file as your point of contact for status updates, document requests, and appointment scheduling.⁶ The case then moves to the NYCERS Medical Board.

The Medical Board draws from a pool of up to 24 independent physicians, and a three-physician panel reviews your medical documentation, conducts an in-person interview and physical examination, and evaluates whether you are physically or mentally incapacitated for the duties of your position.⁸

The review has two steps. First, the Board decides whether you are in fact disabled. If it certifies that you are, it then recommends whether the disability resulted from an accidental injury in the line of duty. If the Board finds you are not medically disabled, the Board of Trustees must accept that finding and deny the claim. The physicians look at imaging reports, treating-physician reports, and range-of-motion measurements, and they note observations of behavior that may indicate “symptom magnification,” including things observed when you aren’t being formally tested.⁹

If your union representative or the relevant agency head objects to the Medical Board’s findings, they can request a special medical committee within 15 days. Three physicians, each with at least 10 years in their specialty, are selected by the Commissioner of Health from an annual panel. They repeat the examination, and their conclusions supersede the original findings. Requesting this review requires signing a waiver that the committee’s determination is final, giving up further court or administrative challenge.⁸ The cost is split equally between the City and the union.

The Medical Board’s recommendation goes to the Board of Trustees, which votes to approve or deny. The Trustees cannot overturn a medical finding of disability.⁶

If You’re Denied

Historically, Tier 4 applicants had three administrative paths after an unfavorable determination:

Refer Back. Before the Board of Trustees ratifies the decision, you have one opportunity to submit additional medical evidence within 30 days of the Medical Board Report’s release. The Medical Board may then issue a new determination.
Renewal. After ratification, you have 60 days to submit additional evidence. You get up to two requests, and you cannot introduce new conditions or new incidents. Applicants seeking WTC reclassification are not eligible for renewal.
Refiling. You can submit an entirely new application if you still meet the eligibility rules, and this path does allow new conditions or incidents to be raised.⁶

In January 2025, NYCERS eliminated the 60-day window that had allowed rejected applicants to review the Medical Board’s findings and submit new medical evidence. Under the policy as reported, denied applicants are not told the specific reasons for the rejection and must wait a full calendar year before reapplying.¹⁰ After advocacy from unions and retirees, NYCERS agreed to revisit the change at a Board of Trustees meeting scheduled for September 11, 2025.¹¹ Confirm the current rules with your Case Manager or union before relying on the older refer-back and renewal steps.

Court review is available after administrative remedies are exhausted. Judges ask whether the Medical Board’s determination was arbitrary and capricious and whether it was supported by some credible evidence, meaning evidence from a credible source that reasonably tends to support the proposition offered.⁹

After Approval

Approved members start receiving partial or advance payments in the month of retirement if the retirement date falls on the first or second of the month, otherwise the following month. These continue until the case is fully finalized and you receive an Option Letter setting out the permanent payment arrangement.⁶

Reexamination and Return to Work

NYCERS can revisit your status. Under the Disability Safeguards in NYC Administrative Code §13-171, you may be reemployed in New York public service if you undergo a medical examination and the Board of Trustees accepts the Medical Board’s certification that you are able to work. If found capable, your name goes on a civil service list as a “preferred eligible,” and your pension may be reduced so that combined pension and new salary do not exceed the maximum salary for the title one level above what you held at retirement.¹²

Those safeguards apply only through the minimum period you would have needed for service retirement (20 or 25 years depending on your plan). After that, you fall under NYC Charter §1117, which caps earnings from New York public service, pension included, at $1,800 per year. Exceed the limit and the disability pension is suspended for the duration of the employment. Waivers of this provision are not permitted.¹²

World Trade Center–Related Claims

Many NYCERS members responded to or were present at the September 11, 2001, attacks, including EMTs, corrections officers, and sanitation workers. If you have a qualifying WTC condition, it is treated as presumptive evidence that your disability was incurred in the line of duty and resulted from an accident, unless NYCERS proves otherwise with competent evidence.⁴ Members already receiving a service or ordinary disability pension can seek reclassification to accidental disability if a qualifying WTC condition is identified; reclassification does not change the retirement option you selected.

If you plan to file a WTC Notice of Participation, the deadline is September 11, 2026, for Form #622 and the related Workers’ Compensation forms.⁷

1
NYCERS. NYCERS Disability Retirement Presentation
2
New York State Comptroller. Tier 4 Article 15 Disability
3
NYC Comptroller. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
4
Justia. New York Retirement and Social Security Law Section 605-B
5
Local 2507. Tier 4 Summary Plan Description
6
DC37. DC37 Disability Process Presentation
7
NYCERS. Disability Applications
8
NYC Administrative Code. NYC Admin Code Section 13-167/168
9
NY Courts. NYCERS Disability Court Decision, 2023
10
The Chief Leader. NYCERS Eliminates Appeal Process for Disability Benefits
11
The Chief Leader. NYCERS to Reconsider Change to Disability Benefit Appeal Policy
12
NYC Comptroller. Disability Retiree Earnings Limitations