These are earnings you are credited within a calendar year that count toward your HOOPP pension. If you work part-time or less than one full year, your annualized earnings will be based on what you would earn if you worked full time for the whole year.

This is the average of the year’s maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE) for the five calendar years before your HOOPP benefit is calculated. Your benefit is calculated when you retire, terminate or pass away.

This is the highest average of your annualized earnings during any consecutive period(s) of five years of eligibility service before your HOOPP benefit is calculated. Benefits are calculated when you retire, terminate or pass away.

This is the monthly lifetime payment you will receive from HOOPP at retirement, based on HOOPP’s defined benefit pension formula. This does not include the bridge benefit for early retirees.

Under provincial pension legislation, your qualifying spouse is automatically entitled to spousal benefits. If your qualifying spouse predeceases you, your spousal benefits have been waived or you don't have a qualifying spouse, you can name any person, persons, organization or your estate as a beneficiary(s).

The early retirement bridge benefit is a monthly payment that supplements your basic lifetime HOOPP pension until age 65 when government pensions normally begin.

HOOPP allows you to “buy back” eligible periods of time in the past, so that the service you purchase can count towards your HOOPP pension. Please see the Buying Back Service booklet on hoopp.com for more information.

The commuted value of your pension is the amount of money needed now to pay your pension in retirement, based on your service and earnings to date. The commuted value fluctuates with changes in factors such as your age and interest rates.

Statistics Canada produces the consumer price index (CPI), as a monthly measure of the rate of inflation. The CPI is based on the cost of a "basket" of approximately 600 goods and services, and is regularly adjusted to reflect seasonal changes and changes in consumer habits. HOOPP's annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) is based upon the December to December increase in the previous year's CPI.

This is the length of time, measured in years and part years that you have contributed to HOOPP. It includes any past service you buy, service transferred into HOOPP or service that may be credited should you be disabled.

In a defined benefit plan members' benefits are determined by a formula usually based on years of service times earnings, rather than by the investment returns made on their pension contributions.

Eligibility service is used to determine the reduction applied to your pension if you decide to take early retirement and is based on your years of membership in the Plan, plus any service purchased or transferred into the Plan, minus any non-contributory leave periods or periods during which you were not employed by a HOOPP employer.

This is a service for which neither you nor your employer made contributions. It can be credited to you during a health leave if you submit medical evidence that shows you meet HOOPP’s definition of partially disabled, totally disabled or totally and permanently disabled.

A leave is a period of time when a member is absent from work. In most cases a leave must be approved by a member's employer.

This is a tax-deferred retirement savings vehicle - similar to a registered retirement income fund - for locked-in RRSP funds or transfers directly from registered pension plans (such as HOOPP.)

Formerly called a locked-in RRSP, this is a tax-deferred retirement savings arrangement for locked-in funds transferred out of a pension plan upon terminating from the Plan.

This is a tax-deferred retirement savings arrangement for locked-in funds transferred out of a pension plan upon terminating from the Plan. It has different withdrawal rules than a LIRA.

Sample of an official marriage certificate issued by the Ontario Registrar General's Office.

Being partially disabled means you have a physical or mental impairment that HOOPP has determined currently prevents you from doing your own job.

A past service pension adjustment (PSPA) is the deemed value of pension benefits purchased in one year for service in a previous year or years.

A pension adjustment (PA) is the deemed value of the benefits a member earns every year in a registered pension plan such as HOOPP.

A person who, at the earlier of the date you retire or pass away, you are: A. Married to, but not separated from; or B. Living with in a common-law relationship i Continuously for a period of not less than one year, or ii Of some permanence, if he or she is the parent of your child.

Under provincial pension legislation, a member can not pay for more than half of the value of his or her pension. At the time the member retires, terminates membership in HOOPP, or dies (before retirement), HOOPP will calculate the commuted value of the member's pension and compare that amount with the required contributions the member has made to the Plan, plus interest on those contributions. If the member's contributions and interest are more than half of the value of his or her pension, the extra amount will be refunded to the member. These returned contributions are known as refundable contributions. Payment of refundable contributions does not reduce the member's commuted value.

Being totally and permanently disabled means you have a condition causing physical or mental impairment that HOOPP has determined prevents you from engaging in any employment for which you are reasonably suited by virtue of your education, training or experience and that can reasonably be expected to continue for the remainder of your lifetime.

Being totally disabled means you have a condition causing physical or mental impairment that HOOPP has determined prevents you from engaging in any employment for which you are reasonably suited by virtue of your education, training or experience.

To be vested means that you are entitled to receive a future pension. If you are a member of the Plan on or after July 1, 2012, you are vested.

The year’s maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE) is set each year by the federal government, based on the average wage in Canada.