House Bill 1312 would change pension payment practice so that retirement system payments cover the entire month in which a member dies. Committee staff said the change responds to situations in which Departments of Retirement Systems must seek reimbursement for part of a final monthly payment when a member dies before the month’s end.

Committee briefings stated the change would apply across multiple retirement systems, including judges’, teachers’, school employees’, public safety, public employees and the Washington State Patrol retirement systems, and would affect roughly 650,000 members across plans. The Department of Retirement Systems estimated a one-time administrative cost of about $280,000 to update systems, and the State Actuary estimated contribution-rate impacts equivalent to about $6.5 million per year to the NGFO across plans. Contribution-rate impacts vary by plan; staff presented plan-level percentage ranges.

Representative Fitzgibbon introduced the bill in committee and described the change as “a little bit more compassionate to our public servants, our retired public servants, and their survivors, at the end of their life.”

Retiree organizations and individual survivors testified in support. Eileen Perfremet of the Washington State School Retirees Association recounted being asked to reimburse part of her late husband’s pension when he died mid-month and urged the committee to adopt a more compassionate approach. David Koenig of the Retired Public Employees Council of Washington said the bill would “ease the financial burden of end of life expenses” for survivors.

Committee staff closed public testimony on the bill in the recorded session; no committee floor vote on HB 1312 is recorded in the transcript.