News

The University of California has enhanced the UC Retirement Savings Program with a new Roth contribution option for the UC 403(b) and UC 457(b) Plans, giving you more flexibility to save and plan for your future through regular pretax contributions, new Roth contributions, or both. Within the first two weeks, hundreds of UC faculty and staff have taken advantage of the new feature and made Roth elections. 

Dear Colleagues, 

No matter how much we plan as we build and care for our families, challenges can arrive when we least expect them. That’s why UC has expanded benefits and programs designed to anticipate and meet the needs of families.

Learn more about a few benefits and programs you may not know about, added by UC in the last few years.

University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP) and UC-PERS Plus 5 Plan benefit recipients, including those receiving survivor and UCRP disability income, will receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective July 1, 2023. The increase will appear in checks paid on August 1. 

An email was sent from WEX (formerly Discovery Benefits), UC's third party vendor for the Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending accounts. Some balances are reflecting incorrectly. This has been brought to the attention of the Office of the President and they are working on resolving this issue as soon as possible. Information will be provided once we hear back from the Office of the President.

Scheduled to open May 5, 2021, this 3-story medical office building — located just off San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, California — will help make it more convenient for members to access care.

We were recently informed of a class action settlement involving the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Companies. Postcards have already been sent to impacted members.  As noted in this mailing, if the recipients have further questions those should be directed to JND Legal Administration and not to Anthem Blue Cross or Blue Shield of California. Below is the communiqué with all the details that was provided by Anthem Blue Cross.

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the latest federal COVID-19 relief bill.  The law includes significant impacts to health and welfare benefits related to employer subsidies for COBRA continuation coverage and an annual maximum contribution increase for DepCare FSA.

The UCOP Health & Welfare Benefits team is currently evaluating the ARPA to determine how it will affect our COBRA and DepCare Flexible Spending Account program operations. They are working with UCPath and WEX on how to implement mandated requirements.