Secure Illinois Retirements - State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois

You help keep the state running.
Your retirement should be a lifeline you can count on.

Your hard-earned pension is at risk

The State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois is only 38.67% funded.* This means the fund has just 38¢ for every dollar it needs to pay current and future retirees.

Your fund is under pressure

In order to guarantee you will get the secure retirement you have been counting on, your fund needs to be fully funded.

You deserve all the benefits you have earned.

We need to work with leaders and the State of Illinois to figure out how to bring the state's assets in line with how much is owed.

The only way to guarantee your pension is
safe is to have a fully funded retirement system

For decades, contributions into your fund have been diverted to pay for infrastructure projects, to fill gaps in the budget during hard times, and even to give you a raise.

This might have seemed like money well spent at the time—but diverting funds has put your retirement at risk.

Severe underfunding puts your pension system in jeopardy.

We need you

Secure Illinois Retirements is here to encourage every town in Illinois to find solutions that will work best for them. The solutions need to be resilient, so that your retirement savings will be secure.

So what can you do to help?

Looking the other way won't fix the mess we're in, but coming together will. We're organizing a grassroots movement of people to work with elected officials and help forge sustainable solutions to the Illinois public retirement debt.

Get informed and help save your pension

Sign up for our email list and get the latest information on legislation, workshops, days of action, events, and more. Add your name to find out how you can help. Please join us!

Join the discussion

Chase your passion, not your pension

When the time comes to retire, you should feel confident that your future is safe. You should be able to spend more time with your family or doing the hobbies you love.

No one deserves to have their retirement put in jeopardy after they retire because they are not receiving the pension benefits they were promised.

Secure Illinois Retirements: a retired person gardening with family

When it’s time to retire, where will you be?

The State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois is only 38.67% funded* so let's imagine that means you would receive only 38% of your promised benefits. If the funded status of your retirement system determined the amount of your pension, then this is the kind of situation you could be facing:

Donna O.

Dietitian

38.67% funded

Years of service

Retirement date:

03/01/2019

Final Salary

$68,412.00

What you have been promised

What you might get at the current funding level

TIER 1

$48,162

$18,624

INITIAL BENEFIT

TIER 2 ⁺

$42,383

$16,389

TIER 1

$55,833

$21,591

BENEFIT AFTER 5 YEARS

TIER 2 ⁺

$44,545

$17,225

Tier 1: Anyone entering service before January 1, 2011

Tier 2: Anyone entering service after January 1, 2011

The funded ratio of your retirement system will not directly correlate with the portion of your pension you end up receiving.

The likely scenario is that everybody will get their full benefits for as long as the fund is solvent. When a fund becomes insolvent, your retirement is in peril.

This benefits calculator can show you what you have been promised.
However, a poorly funded retirement system may not be able to deliver on that promise.

⁺ Disclaimer: The chart above is intended as a simplified illustration of how the funded status of your retirement system could impact your future pension. The chart shows actual figures for a Tier 1 employee and estimated figures for a Tier 2 employee retiring at about 65.

The two-tiered pension system was supposed to solve the problem

Illinois adopted a two-tiered pension system in 2010 to help fix the shortfall in our public retirement systems. However, a decade has passed and our pensions are still woefully underfunded.

Current retirees and more senior employees are mostly Tier 1, and will receive their original benefits. Employees hired since 2010 are Tier 2 and will receive reduced benefits when they retire in the future.

Despite all the conditions put on the benefits of Tier 2 workers, funding levels have only slightly improved. This means the benefits for Tier 2 workers are in serious risk of never being paid out.

Join others like you to protect your pension and your future

Illinois state employees like you need to get together and work with elected officials to help craft resilient solutions to the public retirement shortfall, so the state won’t be forced to turn to desperate measures: slashing budgets, closing facilities, cutting services, and freezing new hires.

Secure Illinois Retirements doesn’t claim to have all the answers. We need your input and your help. We're providing a platform for public-sector workers to meet and chat with others like you who care about solving the debt.

Together, you can share ideas and help elected officials find sustainable solutions. You can also access resources about the Illinois retirement system: get details on legislation, elections, petitions, working groups, workshops, days of action, and more.

Join the discussion at Secure Illinois Retirements and find out what other public-sector employees are saying about the state's retirement funding dilemma.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

Why should I care about the funded status of my retirement system?

Reasons to want a well-funded retirement system

A fully funded system generates income from investments and a smaller fraction of funding comes from employee contributions. If your system does not have any savings to invest, it has to rely solely on your contributions to continue making pension payments for retirees.

A poorly-funded system is always playing catch-up. Payments to future retirees will cost more because benefits keep rising, and during tough times, your system will not have the savings to cover its losses.

A well-funded retirement system means Illinois revenue can be used to pay for schools, hospitals, infrastructure, and public safety. If your system is underfunded, Illinois might raise taxes and fees to pay for other services.

A poorly-funded system makes pension funds vulnerable. Pensions payments may be affected.

A fully funded State Employees' Retirement System of Illinois
is the only way to guarantee your benefits.

Yes, the Pension Clause in the Illinois Constitution legally protects your benefits—but it does not force leaders to put aside the necessary funds.

The only way your pension is truly protected is if Illinois sets aside enough money to fully fund your retirement system.

Cautionary tales from around the U.S.

Detroit, MI

When Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, its funded ratio of assets to liabilities was 69%, which is much higher than most jurisdictions in Illinois. Due to this underfunding and subsequent bankruptcy, public safety employees had their cost-of-living adjustment cut, and civil servants had their pensions reduced.

Central Falls, RI

When Central Falls declared bankruptcy in 2011, its funded ratio was 16.2%. Pensions were slashed by over 50% before the city agreed to 25% for the first five years.

Vallejo, CA

When Vallejo emerged from bankruptcy in 2011, its funded ratio was 66.4%. The town cut police and firefighter numbers and reduced health benefits so it could keep up with mandatory pension contributions.

Harvey, IL

Harvey laid off 18 firefighters, 13 police patrolmen, and five non-sworn employees in 2016, following an intercept of the city's revenue by its police pension fund. The pension obligations had left the city unable to meet running costs.

*Data is from the 2021 Illinois Department of Insurance Public Pension Biennial Report. Our site is updated quickly after each new report is released.

You help keep the state running. Your retirement should be a lifeline you can count on.