Thought I would bump this one, for people to share with their churches.

I berlieve the link will only work for those folks who are members of the CLN, and so I would hope that they are also posted for download on the UCCAN web site

Gord, et al:

Yes, CLN is available only to members.  If you are in a leadership role in our denomination, we strongly encourage membership to access resources (including those we Can't post on the world wide, open to everyone, web): http://churchleadership.united-church.ca

The Budgeting Tools 2012 are also (now) posted on www.united-church.ca.

The difference between the two sites, other than moderate security, is that I can actually post material myself into CLN; the United Church main site is in 'another jurisdiction', so to speak, and it takes more time to get stuff posted there.

Budgeting Tools was recently updated!  The updates are on CLN. If you know what Budgeting Tools are (with regard to the #UCCan payroll), you need to be on the CLN: http://churchleadership.united-church.ca

See you there!

Will those tools be updated so as to allow treasuruers to determine the impact of the changes in the Pension Plan in 2013?

The budgeting tools are updated every year for treasurers.  The updates will be advertised in Connex, and posted on CLN. The 2013 Tools will have the updates, but they will not be available for a while.

Ministry Personnel and Lay Employees who are members of the United Church Pension Plan should keep their eyes on the pension statements that will be issued in June. The 2012 statements will most accurately reflect the Actual Pension members should expect at retirment.

I am more concerned about pastoral charges and their ability to plan for increases in pension assessments which may, in the case of multiple staff who are members of the Pension Plan, run into thousands of dollars. The ability to plan for such changes would be extremely helpful.

OTOH DKS, a congregation with leadership who are on the ball can take the letter they recieved about the pension plan changes and start working out what that means for them using a calculator.

COngregations that atre not on the ball won't do this no matter what tools they are given.

"Tru,dat" as my boys would text!

Basically, to discover the costs:

Pensionable Earnings(PE) x 9% (employer contribution)= 2013 contribution amt.

then, 2013 contribution amt. / 12= monthly amount

• PE is equivalent to salary, for lay employees
• PE is salary x 1.4 for ministry personnel

The same formula works for the Member calculations : replace 9% with 6%                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Given the variance in church treasurers, that would be quite remarkable.

As I suspected, the increase in employer contribution , if the plan were to have been changed for 2012, would be about $3,300 in our situation with four plan members. Order of Ministry increase would have been $1500 alone.

All Active members of the plan will get June statements that will most accurately reflect the effect of the changes on the pension benefit amount.

Please also note: nothing changes until January 1, 2013. And there is no change to benefits for those already retired from the United  Church and recieving their pension benefits already.

One other note:  the increase in pension contributions will mean your taxible income will be slightly less, and it also could mean there's more room for RRSP contributions (depending on your situation).

I did a conditional scenario, looking only at the effect on the pastortal charge contribution.

While everyone suggests maximizing RRSP contribtions, it also pays to get serious tax advice for your individual situation. There is no tax advantage in certain situations, for maximizing the RRSP contribtion.

I tweeted a good article from the Globe on the RRSP vs. TFSA balance earlier today:

Defend savings from a surprise tax grab http://tgam.ca/DWOJ /via  Rob Carrick's thoughts: hedging against coming(?) OAS chgs

(@uccan_mande is Ministry and Employment's twitter stream)

Which reminds me. The pension calculator on the HR web site appears to be broken. No matter what date I enter, my early full pension date or my age 65 retirement dateI sitll get an "Invalid date" error message. Nothing I input will change the error message. And there is no explantion that the calculator is broken.

How much money are we paying for this busted web site?

DKS is right.  THere is NO tax advantage to me if I suddenly had the cash to buy up all my available RRSP room (which I believe is now well north of $20K).  And in the market conditions at present it is hard to say if a TFSA wouldn't in fact be an equallly profitable venture (with the added benefit of it being accessible cash should it be needed).

THe change in pension rate will cost (just for me) the charge about 1250 based on this year's salary (and of course will cost the same for me since 2% of a number is the same if going from 4-6 or from 7-9)

You're right about the contribution increases: they're shared equally by employer and member.

I mention (to the PTBs)  the Pension Calculator is busted.  I didn't realize it still wasn't operational.

gotta say this change is a big financial hit to our congregation.  Not that we begrudge paying pensions but it is a big change.  At a time when most members of our  congregation dont' have pensions at all

lastpointe- that's the truth...so many don't have a pension provision other than the federal plans. It's an injustice, certainly.

Pensions for United Church ministry personnel are a part of the Basis of Union, actually. That was back in the days before there was a federal safety net. 

Re: Benefits Centre Pension Calculator

Apparently, it works. (?) So, can I have some feedback on the browser you are using, because apparently THAT's the problem.

 (I knew I'd find the right thread sooner or later!)
For all members and treasurers that were asking, the Pension Calculator has been fixed, although it has NOT incorporated the changes coming in January 2013 yet.

The best information about how the upcoming changes will affect your pension benefits at retirement will be the Pension Statement, due to be sent to Active Members in June.

Benefits will not change for members currently recieving a pension benefit (retired members of the United Church's pension plan).

YBR, Your Benefits Resource: http://ybrcanada.hewitt.com/ucc

Given that the first pensions, Government Annuities, dates from 1908, that's not entirely true. OAS dates from 1927, however. 

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/pensions/cpp-m1867_e.shtml

Nope. Still busted. It will not accept any date of any kind, earliest retirement, regular retirement or manually entered in the correct format. I'm using IE9 64 bit, with all the latest updates.