Termination of Your Eligibility

Your eligibility for Plan benefits is affected when you stop working in Covered Employment as follows:

• Eligibility for the Weekly Accident and Sickness Disability Benefit stops on the first day of the second month following a two-consecutive-month period during which you have not worked in Covered Employment.
  
  
• Eligibility for all other Plan benefits stops as indicated in the charts in the Continuation of Eligibility .
  

Example: Termination of Eligibility

Continuing with the previous eligibility examples, John has been participating in the Plan from September 1, 2009 through June 30, 2011.

Because he has been eligible for benefits for 18 months or longer, he must meet the requirements in Chart 1 . However, he does not have 1,000 hours in the 12 months from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011 or 500 hours in the six months from January 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011. John’s eligibility terminates on July 31, 2011.

If You Are Disabled

For all Plan benefits except the Weekly Accident and Sickness Disability Benefit, any month in which you have a Certified Disability for 18 or more days will be counted as a month in which you have worked in Covered Employment. However, you may not receive credit for a Certified Disability for more than six months in a period of twelve consecutive months.

A Certified Disability is one for which you would otherwise receive Weekly Accident and Sickness Disability Benefits from the Plan, were you eligible, or benefits under any Workers’ Compensation Law, Occupational Disease Law or similar legislation. However, if you are not eligible for this extension, you may continue health coverage under Continuation of Health Benefits (COBRA) .

If You Retire

If you retire and are eligible for retiree medical benefits under the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 73 Retiree Welfare Fund, you may continue your coverage under the Plan for Active Employees until the end of the calendar year in which you retire if you have not yet reached age 65. Beginning January 1 of the following calendar year, coverage under the Active Plan ends, and you may continue coverage under Retiree Plan. However, you must begin making self-payments for retiree coverage on your retirement date (the date you begin receiving pension payments from the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 73 Pension Fund).

If you retire after you have reached age 65, you may not maintain coverage under the Active Plan. You must enroll in Medicare and you will be covered under the Retiree Plan, if you are eligible for that coverage.

There are two exceptions to this rule: The Fund’s Death Benefit and the Accidental Death and Dismemberment Benefit will stop six months after your retirement date.