While many people believe retirement begins when you stop working, in many ways retirement actually starts when you begin working. It begins when you plan ahead, start paying into Social Security, enroll in CalPERS and vest in your pension.

One way Teresa Ulloa, of Torrance Student Support Staff Chapter 845 and a proud 12-year CSEA member, began planning ahead for retirement was by attending CSEA’s pre-retirement events. This started Ulloa on a path where she discovered a critical error occurred years earlier with CalPERS.

With the help of CSEA staff, she was able to resolve the problem and receive additional service credit before she retired and became reliant on these essential payments.

Ulloa has worked part-time as a paraeducator since 2006, working with students with moderate to severe disabilities. She has also previously worked as a substitute, so she was worried she might be affected by the former Windfall Elimination Provision, which could have decreased her retirement benefits. The provision was repealed in January 2025 when President Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law.

At the beginning of 2024, Ulloa got in touch with a CSEA Member Benefits retirement expert to ask her questions.

“It worried me immensely to hear my benefits would be reduced,” said Ulloa.

Together they worked to ensure Ulloa would be receiving the full retirement benefits she was owed upon retirement. During this journey to understanding her benefits, Ulloa learned she had not been correctly enrolled in CalPERS by her employer.

District employers are required to enroll employees in CalPERS if they are working four hours or more a day, or twenty or more hours per week, and Ulloa’s employer had not enrolled her when her hours increased to meet this threshold.

“Member Benefits guided me first to check to see all was proper and to call CalPERS and have them request my work history from my employer,” said Ulloa.

She was told the process may take several months, so she frequently checked on the status of her case with CalPERS.

Ulloa admitted, “I sometimes felt awkward not really understanding what I was looking for. I reached out to Member Benefits, and they reassured me that all was going the way it should.”

After several months, good news came for Ulloa.

“In mid-June, I received a letter from CalPERS stating that based on my employment history, I was qualified to receive CalPERS membership four years prior to when I started receiving it,” said Ulloa.

“At the end of July, I received another letter stating that my CalPERS account had been posted with an additional two years of service credit and over $3,500 in employee retirement.”

Ulloa described her back pay as an “unexpected win” and explained she would never have thought to double-check that she was correctly enrolled had she not been advised by CSEA staff.

“I am very appreciative to CSEA for encouraging me to go this route. I would now give the same encouragement for those nearing retirement, not to delay, check into your work history, and allow the process to proceed. Mistakes happen, but they can be rectified with due diligence.”history, and allow the process to proceed. Mistakes happen, but they can be rectified with due diligence.”