Calculation of Eligibility Dates 

Determination of employee eligibility is a key process in the Benefits component, and takes place in Enrollment processing and the Participation Monitor. The following factors determine the eligibility of employees on a given date:

This is the first date on which an employee is eligible. The system can calculate this date on various key dates prior to employee plan participation.

This is determined in accordance with customized eligibility requirements and can be checked by the system at any time during employee plan participation.

This document describes how eligibility dates only are determined, taking into account waiting periods for enrollment, which can be set up in Customizing. A waiting period can be defined as part of an eligibility rule, and can be based on a fixed period (for example, 3 months) or a dynamic condition (for example, 1000 hours service), or both of these. Employees become eligible for enrollment immediately after the end of the base waiting period, or on a date specified as the first possible enrollment date after the end of the base waiting period (for example, the first day of the following month).

Algorithm for the Calculation of Eligibility Dates

  1. To determine the end of the base waiting period, the system performs different calculations for fixed and dynamic conditions:

    2. Fixed base waiting period

    1. The system identifies the date that is the basis for calculating the eligibility date.

      2. As a default, the hire date is used as the base date. This is inferred from the employee's Personnel Actions and Organizational Assignment records (infotypes 0000 and 0001).

      If a hire date override is specified in Customizing, the system checks whether the employee has a Dates Specification record (infotype 0041) with the date type that is specified as an override. If this is the case, the override date is used as the base date, otherwise the hire date is the base date.

    2. The end of the fixed base waiting period is calculated as the base date plus the fixed period specified in Customizing.

    The end of the fixed base waiting period cannot be earlier than the hire date itself. This is due to the fact that, since no employee data is stored prior to the hire date, the system does not have access to the necessary information for enrollment. If the calculated end of the fixed base waiting period is before the hire date, the system therefore sets it forward to the hire date.

    Dynamic base waiting period

    The system checks the employee's Dates Specification record (infotype 0041) for the date type specified in the base waiting period definition. If this date type exists, this is used as the end date, otherwise the employee is not eligible and no further calculation takes place.

    If no base waiting period is defined, the end date is automatically the hire date.

    If both a fixed and a dynamic conditions are specified, the end date is the earlier of the end dates for the fixed and dynamic base waiting period.

  2. The date that the system considers the actual end date of the base waiting period depends on the definition of the base waiting period, as shown in the following table:

Fixed Definition

Dynamic Definition

End of Base Waiting Period

No

No

Hire date

Yes

No

End of fixed base waiting period

No

Yes

End of dynamic base waiting period, if available, otherwise employee not eligible

Yes

Yes

Earlier of the end dates for the fixed and dynamic waiting period

  1. If a first possible date for enrollment after the end of the base waiting period is specified in Customizing, the eligibility date is set to the date matching the specified day in a period. If enrollment is specified as immediate, the eligibility date is the same as the end of the base waiting period.
  2. If a minimum age is defined in the eligibility rule and the employee has not reached this age on the calculated eligibility date, the eligibility date is set forward to the date on which the employee will reach the minimum age.

If you implement a user exit, the system executes this instead of performing the process described above.