The Importance of Filing Benefit Shortages

May 10, 2016

If you are an Active Carpenter working for a Contributing Employer in Covered Employment, it is important to ensure that all of the hours you work are being properly reported. If your proper amount of hours are not being reported by your employer, you will not receive the amount of Benefit Hours contributions to which you are entitled. This can possibly have a negative effect on your welfare coverage, as well as your pension credits. As such, you should always remember to save your pay stubs and daily records of work in case this ever happens to you. In the event that all of the hours you worked have not been reported to the Fund Office, you are required to submit a Benefit Shortage Report.

When submitting the Benefit Shortage Report, you must make sure you adequately prove that work was being performed for a Contributing Employer and was in Covered Employment. To prove this, you must include copies of pay stubs for the payroll weeks that have the shortages, along with the Benefit Shortage Report.

Fortunately, there is an easy way you can check the hours credited to you so that you can match it up with your pay stubs and records to make sure everything is correct. You can check your hours simply by logging into the Member Portal section of the Benefit Funds’ website at www.nyccbf.org. You should use your UBC Number and PIN to log in (contact the Fund Office to reset your PIN, if necessary). Another option is by calling the Fund Office at (800) 529-3863 or (212) 366-7373, and following the Interactive Voice Recording (“IVR”) prompts to “credited hours.”

If you notice that your employer has submitted an incorrect report of hours on your behalf, the Benefit Hours Shortage Report forms are available at www.nyccbf.org/member/benefit-shortages/. After filling out the Benefit Shortage Report, submit the report along with copies of your pay stubs to:

New York City District Council of Carpenters Benefit Funds

395 Hudson Street, 9^th Floor

New York, NY 10014

Attention: Internal Delinquencies Department

*Please note that the Benefit Shortage Report should be filed within 14 days of the date the Benefit hours were due so that the Benefit Funds can account for all of your work in Covered Employment and ensure that you receive all benefits to which you are entitled. Also remember that the Trustees reserve the right to determine whether evidence submitted by you is sufficient to prove that service was performed in Covered Employment for a Contributing Employer.

If you have any questions regarding the filing of benefit shortages, please contact our Member Services Department at (800) 529-FUND (3863) or (212) 366-7373.