RS PHI02505.030 Sabbatical Pay - Policy

See RS 02505.030

A. Definition:

A sabbatical is leave for rest, travel, or research granted by an employer (usually a school district or college) to an employee (usually a teacher).

B. Policy

1. Employment Relationship Not Terminated

In general, payments received during a sabbatical are a form of salary continuation, and are paid with the expectation that the employee will return to work upon expiration of the sabbatical. In other words, sabbatical payments are special wage payments paid during an existing employment relationship, and, as such, are earnings for deduction purposes in the month for which paid. This is so even if the employee retires after the sabbatical without having returned to work, because the employer granted the sabbatical with the expectation that the employee would return to work.

2. Employment Relationship Terminated

There are instances, though these are rare, where an employer will make sabbatical payments to an employee it knows will not return to work upon expiration of the sabbatical. Sabbatical payments in these cases are earnings for deduction purposes, but they are chargeable to the last month worked because the employer has no expectation that the employee will return to work (i.e., the employment relationship has terminated).

C. Procedure:

SSA's field offices should contact the school boards in their service areas to determine if the boards will make sabbatical payments to teachers not expected to return to work. The field offices should then establish precedents (based on the above policy) so that beneficiaries with the same employer will receive consistent treatment from SSA in the handling of their special wage payments.

D. References:


To Link to this section - Use this URL:
http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0302505030PHI
RS PHI02505.030 - Sabbatical Pay - Policy - 04/16/2002
Batch run: 07/09/2013
Rev:04/16/2002