Credited Service

Your years of credited service are used to determine when you qualify for benefits and how much your benefits will be:

Credited Service is Defined as:

Prior Service which means service prior to July 1, 1985, as transferred from the Miami Plan or the Orlando Plan (as applicable)

plus

Years of Service following June 30, 1985.

A Year of Service for Priests and Religious Priests means each Plan Year after June 30, 1985, during which a Member performs services within the diocese and/or is on disability leave for at least six (6) full calender months.

Seniority Service

For purposes of benefit accrual any Priest who has been active in the Diocese of Palm Beach for a period of ten (10) years shall be given credit for one half (½) Year of Service for each year he has worked in ministry since ordination other than for the Diocese of Palm Beach, up to a maximum of eight (8) years of such service.

Any member who has entered this Plan as a transferee from another plan and who has transferred Credited Service from such plan shall have such serviced count toward the 10 year seniority service requirement above.  Such service shall not also be included in service outside the diocese and shall not provide additional half-years credit.

Breaks in Service

Any Plan Year during which you do not completed more than 3 months of service as a Priest in the Diocese is considered a Break in Service.  Under the Plan, a Break in Service is considered to be an interruption of your employment.  However, you remain entitled to the years of service you had earned before your Break in Service began if:

1. You were vested before the Break in Service; or

2. The number of your consecutive Breaks in Service years is less than five and less than the number of your years of Credited Service before such break.

NOTE: If you have 5 or more Years of Credited Service you are fully vested and cannot lose benefits due to a Break in Service.

Religious Priests: Exclusion From Break in Service Rules

Regardless of any other provision herein, all service rendered by Religious Priests to the Diocese of Palm Beach following June 30, 1985 shall be counted for all Plan purposes; no Break in Service shall cause any period of service to be excluded from Credited Service.

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