Bill > HB0704

This bill makes a technical amendment to Section 14-119 of the Illinois Pension Code, which governs widow's annuities for state employees. The bill appears to be primarily a technical correction, removing and reinserting the word "The" at the beginning of a paragraph without substantive change. The existing law specifies that a widow's annuity is typically 50% of the retirement annuity the deceased member would have received, with potential increases if the widow has dependent children under 18 (or 22 if a full-time student). The bill retains complex provisions about Social Security benefit offsets, including options for retirees to reduce their own retirement annuity by 3.825% to eliminate these offsets. The legislation also maintains existing rules about when children's eligibility affects the annuity and provides for potential annuity increases over time based on the date the widow's annuity began. While the government-provided summary describes this as a "technical change," the bill preserves the intricate existing framework for calculating and adjusting widow's annuities under the state employee pension system.

Government Affairs

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=704&GAID=18&DocTypeID=HB&SessionID=114&GA=104