Relinquishment of Rights

Relinquishment of rights is when an applicant relinquishes all seniority or other rights he or she may have to return to work for any railroad employer.  The relinquishment of rights only affects the benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA).  The relinquishment of rights does not bind the railroad should the employer choose to provide certain employee benefits (i.e., health insurance, an employee buyout) after the employee stops working.

In order to receive an annuity, an age and service annuitant must relinquish his or her rights to return to railroad work, however, a disability annuitant is not required to do so in order to receive a disability annuity.

A supplemental annuity is payable to a disabled annuitant nor is a spouse annuity payable to the spouse of a disabled annuitant unless the annuitant has relinquished his or her rights to return to work for a railroad employer.  To address this requirement, a disability annuitant who files a Form AA-1d, Application for Determination of Employee's Disability, authorizes the RRB to automatically relinquish his or her rights at the appropriate time - either at attainment of FRA or before attaining FRA when:

• the disabled annuitant becomes eligible for a supplemental annuity, or,
• the spouse of the disability annuitant becomes eligible for a spouse annuity; or,
• the disability annuity is denied, the employee is eligible for a reduced age annuity, and the employee indicates on the Form AA-1, Application for Employee Annuity, that he or she would accept a reduced age and service annuity.

If the applicant for a disability annuity, or a disabled annuitant, does not want the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) to automatically relinquish his or her rights, then he or she must submit a written statement revoking the RRB's authority to do so.  Such revocation must be received by the RRB before the automatic relinquishment of rights is triggered by the occurrence of one of the above events.

Events You Must Report

This chapter describes the different events that will affect your disability benefits. You should be aware of these different events and notify us immediately if any of them apply to you.

The events you should report can affect all of the following:

• The amount of your monthly payment.
• The total amount which can be paid to you during the year.
• Whether you can continue to be paid at all.
• Whether your period of disability and/or early Medicare coverage can continue.

Keep this booklet handy and refer to this part occasionally to see if you need to report any event to the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB).

The following events must be promptly reported to the RRB:

• If you perform any work, including self-employment, regardless how much you earn,
• If your condition improves, or your doctor tells you that you are able to work,
• If you begin to receive worker’s compensation payments or any other public benefit based on disability, or if the amount of these payments change,
• If you are convicted due to a criminal offense.

These events must be reported in addition to any other events you must report described in booklet RB-1, Employee Annuity.

In any situation, the best rule of thumb is "If in doubt - report". The field office can advise how a particular event would affect benefits, and in many cases, they can handle it at the field office.

How To Report An Event

If, at any time after you have completed your application, you find that one of the conditions previously explained in this publication applies to you, immediately notify the RRB in writing. The notice should be sent to the RRB field office at the address shown on the receipt for your application. However, if you wish, you may also call or visit that office.

When you report an event, be sure to include the following in your letter:

• Your railroad retirement claim number, which is shown at the top of your application receipt, and;
• your name (or the employee’s name if you are reporting an event for the employee), and;
• a clear explanation of what event you are reporting, and;
• the exact date (month, day, year) that the event occurred, and;
• your address and daytime telephone number.

If you are reporting work, it is important that you also furnish:

• the kind of work you are doing,
• the name and address of your employer,
• how much you expect to earn each month,
• the period of time you expect to work,
• how many hours per week you work, and
• any disability related work expenses.