While current employees and retirees are guaranteed the UC Retirement Plan benefits they have earned, the University must concern itself with the sustainability of the plan and the market competitiveness of the benefit. Recent actions by the Regents to address these issues are the decision to restart employer and employee contributions to UCRP beginning April, 2010, and the establishment of a Task Force on Retirement benefits to develop a comprehensive, long-term approach to UC obligations for post-retirement benefits.

The effect of the State of California legislature's decision to eliminate funding for the restart of contributions from the 2009-10 state budget is not yet clear. President Mark Yudof said the university is gravely concerned. "The state has a responsibility to support employer contributions to UC's Retirement Plan, as it does for other defined benefit plans on behalf of California State University and community college employees," Yudof said.

The Task Force on Retirement Benefits will make recommendations on the long-term funding, benefits policy and benefits design alternatives for retirement benefits for UC faculty and staff, taking into consideration the issues of market competitiveness, workforce development, affordability and sustainability. The Task Force is expected to make recommendations to the President for subsequent submission to the Regents.

You can see estimates of your UCRP benefits by signing in to your personal account via At Your Service by selecting "Sign in to My Accounts" and entering your username and password. These estimates are based on your current three-year average salary and assume you will continue to earn service credit at your current rate.

If you want to estimate retirement benefits at different three-year average salaries, you can use the Retirement Plan Benefit Estimator.

You can view your DC Plan, 403(b) Plan and/or 457(b) Plan account balances by visiting the Fidelity Retirement Services website.

• In fiscal year 2007-08, the UCRP paid nearly $1.5 billion in monthly benefits to 50,171 recipients.
• Today, it is estimated that the UCRP is only 95 percent funded, and it has been estimated to fall to 60 percent within five years even with the reinstatement of contributions.
• Because of the nearly 20 year contribution "holiday," some 80 percent of UC employees have not contributed to the UCRP.
• The state of California will have contributed an estimated $4.5 billion to CalPERS (for CSU faculty) and Cal STRS (for community college faculty) from November, 1990, when UCRP contributions ended, through fiscal year 2008-09. The State has not made contributions to UCRP during that period.