Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: South Carolina Retirement System (SCRS): the COLA (PEBA’s current term is “benefit adjustment”) is automatic at 1% up to $500/year, service credit can be purchased, and its old DROP-equivalent (TERI) closed in 2018. Vesting takes five years for Class Two members (enrolled before July 1, 2012) or eight years for Class Three (enrolled on or after).
Provisional. This page is published at medium confidence. The specific points that could not be confirmed are listed under What could not be verified below, and are named rather than smoothed over.
The verdicts
| Is the COLA granted? | Automatic (statutory “benefit adjustment”) |
|---|---|
| Is the COLA compounded? | Not stated |
| Vesting | 5 years (Class Two) or 8 years (Class Three) |
| Buy service credit? | Yes |
| DROP? | Closed (TERI program ended June 30, 2018) |
| State | South Carolina |
Those first two rows are separate questions and are routinely confused. Whether you get an increase at all is one thing; whether it compounds is another. A system can grant an increase automatically every year and still compute it against your original benefit forever, which is a materially worse deal than it sounds.
The COLA
South Carolina’s overview page states: “Current state law provides for an annual benefit adjustment of 1% of your annual benefit up to a maximum of $500 per year.” The member handbook adds: “The earliest you can receive a benefit adjustment is the second July 1 after your date of retirement.” The materials reviewed do not explain why this benefit is called an annual benefit adjustment rather than a cost-of-living adjustment, and no PEBA reform summary was found among the archived sources for this system. Whether the 1% is calculated on the original base benefit or the previously adjusted benefit is not stated in the materials reviewed.
Coordinate this with your overall retirement plan
An adviser can help weigh a COLA that may not compound, a service-credit purchase that may never pay for itself, or a DROP election against the rest of your retirement plan, but that does not replace the numbers in your own member statement.
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Buying service credit
SCRS lets members purchase public service, K-12 educational service, up to 6 years of military service, leave of absence (up to 2 years per leave), workers’-comp leave, previously withdrawn SCRS service, up to 5 years of non-qualified service, and State ORP participation time. For most categories, PEBA states: “The cost, which is determined by PEBA’s independent actuary, will not be less than 16% of your career highest fiscal year earnable compensation for each year purchased.” Previously withdrawn service instead costs “will not be less than 35%” of that same figure, or simply “the amount you withdrew plus interest to the date your request is received.”
Run your own numbers before deciding: some purchases never recover their cost, and the calculator shows which.
Vesting
Class Two: “You must have at least five years of earned service to receive a benefit.” Class Three: “You must have at least eight years of earned service to receive a benefit.” Act 278 of 2012 “increased the vesting period from five to eight years” for members with no earned service before July 1, 2012.
DROP
South Carolina’s DROP-equivalent program, TERI (Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive), is closed: “The TERI program closed, effective June 30, 2018.” No current or active DROP program exists for SCRS.
DROP is rarer than it appears across the systems on this site: most have none.
What could not be verified
REFUND TERMS: this page does not state what happens to your contributions if you take a refund instead of leaving your account with the system: that comparison was not independently researched for this system this session, and is left as an open gap rather than guessed from another system’s rule. Consult your own plan’s refund/forfeiture terms before deciding. Any additional field marked “not stated” in the verdicts table above was genuinely absent from the official materials read, not omitted for space.
Sources
Read September 3, 2026.
Related public pension systems: Alabama RSA · Louisiana TRSL.
General information drawn from each system’s own official published materials, not legal, tax or financial advice. Vesting, COLA and buyback rules are set by state statute and plan tier, differ materially by hire date, and can change by future legislation. This page cannot see your own member statement, which governs. We are not a law firm, a tax adviser, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice.