EFFECTIVE DATES OF PERSONAL BENEFITS
A. Making a Request for Benefits
1. Your Employer has established a benefits plan. Under such a plan, you can choose the amount and types of benefits subject to the rules of the plan. Such rules include time frames during which you may make a request to be covered or to change your benefits under This Plan as set forth below. Such rules also establish a time frame for when changes in the amount of your benefits are made as a result of a change in your class or earnings. Your Employer can provide you with more information regarding the benefits plan. In order to become covered for Personal Benefits under This Plan, you must make a written request to the Employer on the benefits enrollment form furnished by the Employer.
In general, you can make choices for coverage for Personal Benefits:
- when you are first eligible for Personal Benefits; and
- when you have a Qualifying Event and want to make a change in your coverage for Personal Benefits to be more consistent with your new family status; and
- during the annual enrollment period as designated by the Employer and reported to you.
Requests to be covered for Personal Benefits may only be made:
- during the first and any subsequent annual enrollment period, as designated by the Employer and reported to you, following your Personal Benefits Eligibility Date; or
- during the thirty-one day period following your Personal Benefits Eligibility Date; or
- within thirty-one days of a Qualifying Event.
If you are already covered for Personal Benefits, requests for changes in Personal Benefits may only be made:
- during the annual enrollment period, as designated by the Employer and reported to you; or
- within thirty-one days of a Qualifying Event, provided that the change in coverage is consistent with your new family status.
2. If you make a request to be covered for Personal Benefits within thirty-one days of your Personal Benefits Eligibility Date, your Personal Benefits will become effective on your Personal Benefits Eligibility Date, subject to the Active Work Requirement.
3. If you make a request to be covered for Personal Benefits or a request for change(s) in Personal Benefits within thirty-one days of a Qualifying Event, your Personal Benefits or the change(s) in Personal Benefits will become effective on the first day of the month following the date of your request, subject to the Active Work Requirement, and provided that the change in coverage is consistent with your new family status.
4. If you make a request to be covered for Personal Benefits during an annual enrollment period, but after your Personal Benefits Eligibility Date, your Personal Benefits will become effective on the first day of the calendar month following the annual enrollment period, subject to the Active Work Requirement.
5. If you make a request to change your Personal Benefits during an annual enrollment period, your Personal Benefits will become effective on the first day of the calendar month following the annual enrollment period, subject to the Active Work Requirement.
B. Active Work Requirement
You must be Actively at Work in order for your Personal Benefits to become effective. If you are not Actively at Work on the date when your Personal Benefits would otherwise become effective, your Personal Benefits will become effective on the first day after you return to Active Work.
C. Reinstatement of Benefits
If your Personal Benefits end because you do not make a required contribution to their cost, you may make a request to reinstate them, subject to the foregoing provisions.