State Attorney General Henry McMaster has issued an opinion that state employees who are participants in the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive (TERI) program, and have been fired from their job, may be eligible for unemployment benefits.                                                                                                             
The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW), which administers the unemployment insurance program for the state, reports that it has received some claims from former state employees participating in the TERI program who were terminated prior to the end of the maximum five-year period allowable for participation in the program.
State employees, who are active in the South Carolina Retirement System (SCRS), have had the option for several years of participating in the TERI program when they completed their application for service retirement. TERI participation allows state employees to retire and begin accumulating retirement benefits on a deferred basis without terminating their employment. Participants in the program may defer the receipt of their retirement benefits and can continue to work up to 60 months. The individual’s monthly retirement benefit is accumulated in a separate TERI account.
The Attorney General’s opinion states that a TERI participant who is terminated from employment prior to the end of their five-year work period may have their separation evaluated to determine possible eligibility for unemployment compensation. Because the claimant is a retired state employee, the weekly benefit amount would be reduced by the pension from a base period employer who pays a percentage contribution to the pension. The claimant’s percentage of contribution to the pension is not deducted. 
In most cases, the deductable pension amount will exceed the claimant’s weekly benefit amount, and the claimant would not be eligible for any unemployment benefits. In other cases, the claimant will only be eligible for a minimal UI payment, after the deduction is taken.
The DEW’s initial position was that all TERI employees should be denied unemployment compensation because they had voluntarily retired. However, as a result of the appeal to the Attorney General’s Office and his resulting opinion, the agency has agreed that some UI claims by former TERI participants may be eligible and, therefore, are due benefit payments.