COMPTROLLER'S MEMORANDUM NO. 98-34

August 21, 1998

TO THE HEADS OF ALL STATE AGENCIES

1. INSURANCE INCREASE. All employees insured under the Group Plan pursuant to Section 5-257 of the General Statutes, whose yearly gross compensation rate increased on or before October 1, 1998, will have an increase in their insurance in accordance with the attached schedule of insurance.
2. BASIS FOR INCREASE. Only an employee's base salary as of October 1, 1998, as noted in the Compensation Plan issued by the Department of Administrative Services, shall be used to determine his or her eligibility for increased insurance coverage.
   
   NO ADDITIONAL PAYMENTS, SUCH AS LONGEVITY, OVERTIME, SHIFT DIFFERENTIAL OR MAINTENANCE, MAY BE CONSIDERED AS BASE SALARY.
   
3. EFFECTIVE DATE OF INCREASE. The increased deduction should appear on the following payrolls:
   

   BI-WEEKLY:	September 11-24, 1998, payable October 9, 1998
   SEMI-MONTHLY:	October 1-15, 1998, payable October 15, 1998

4. PROJECTION/INCREASE CRITERIA. In order for the insurance projection and premium increase to be processed correctly by the MSA Payroll System, the following data requirements must be met for employees on the MSA Payroll Master File.
   1. Employee status must be active (blank). 
      The coverage projection and premium increase is not applicable to inactive or terminated employees.
   2. Normal salary must be greater than zero. 
      This information is needed to determine the amount of insurance coverage for which the employee is eligible.
   3. Bargaining Unit designation must be entered. 
      This establishes the eligibility for coverages in excess of $38,000.00.
   4. Employee must have D/OE 66 activated. 
      The deduction must exist prior to the projection increase run. Maintenance for new coverage cannot be performed during the projection increase run.
   5. Current amount deducted must be greater than zero. 
      D/OE 66 must be an active deduction.
      
5. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. An Insurance Projection Report, in duplicate, showing employee number, name, previous deduction and the insurance amount based on the deduction for the pay periods shown in paragraph 3 above will be distributed to each agency with the September 25, 1998, paychecks. This report will also show the increased deductions and new insurance coverage where increases in salary are sufficient to increase the coverage. The report should be checked thoroughly for accuracy. Salary adjustments for non-taxable maintenance or other unusual situations, such as collective bargaining exceptions, should be noted and corrected accordingly.
   
   Corrections to the report, if any, should be entered in red to the right of the printed figures. Any corrections made to the printed report must be entered manually into the payroll system by the agency payroll officer in the same manner described in Section 6 below.
   
   A copy of the report should be retained by the agency. The original, as corrected, must be submitted immediately to the attention of the Employee Benefits Unit (formerly Group Life Insurance), Retirement and Benefit Services Division, Office of the State Comptroller, 55 Elm Street, Hartford, Connecticut 06106.
   
   Employees on Leave of Absence Without Pay or Workers' Compensation who qualify for increased coverage and any employees who are insured under this group life insurance plan, but whose names do not appear on the report, should be listed manually at the end of the report (use extra sheets if necessary). Do not list employees who are on premium waiver status as a result of disability.
   
6. MSA PAYROLL SYSTEM. A mass change will be run as the first item on the pay period in which the change is to be effective. Records of employees whose salaries will change on that pay period must be reviewed by the payroll clerk, and the revised group life deduction must be entered on the "D/OE Maintenance" screen (170-187) for those agencies who are on-line. The File Maintenance Report should be reviewed. Please call 702-3463 if you need assistance.
   
7. RETROACTIVE PAY INCREASES. Section 5-257 of the Connecticut General Statutes provides that increases of life insurance arising from retroactive salary increases shall take effect on the first day of April or October subsequent to the approval date of such increases. There is no recalculation of group life insurance to the effective date of a retroactive increase.
   
8. SCHEDULES OF INSURANCE. Attached are two Schedules of Insurance. The first is for collective bargaining employees with a $38,000.00 limit on basic life insurance. Schedule 2 is to be used for employees who are (1) not in a collective bargaining unit or (2) whose bargaining unit has a stipulated maximum amount of insurance greater than $38,000.00.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

To assure delivery of the appropriate benefits to each employee covered with group life insurance, the information maintained by the State Comptroller must be current.

In order to maintain the current status of the group life insurance files, it is imperative that every agency payroll office submit BI-WEEKLY, to the Comptroller's Retirement and Benefit Services Division, the "Report of Group Life Insurance Bi-weekly Payroll Changes," Form CO-889.

This has been and will continue to be an ongoing requirement.

Very truly yours,

Nancy Wyman
State Comptroller

NW/SW/hk

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