Updated October 21, 2026. Quick answer: The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund member handbook describes DROP as an optional plan for eligible officers and firefighters who delay retirement and keep working. The pension is calculated on the DROP effective date, no service credit is earned while in the plan, and the handbook sets a five-year minimum and an eight-year limit. The handbook points members to its separate Member’s Guide to DROP for more detail.
What this section covers
The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund member handbook gives DROP its own short section. It opens: “The Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) is an optional benefit that allows eligible police officers and firefighters to accumulate a lump sum of money for retirement.”
This page follows that section of the Member Handbook for New Members. For the wider choices around retirement in this system, see Ohio Police and Fire retirement decisions.
Who it applies to
The handbook ties DROP to normal service retirement: “When you are eligible for a normal service retirement, you can enter DROP by delaying retirement and continuing to work as a full-time police officer or firefighter.” It then gives the normal service eligibility age for two groups. For members hired into a covered position after July 1, 2013, the handbook says “normal service retirement eligibility is age 52 with at least 25 years of service.” For earlier hires it says “Members hired on or before July 1, 2013, the normal service retirement eligibility age is 48.”
The handbook is written for new members, so check your own hire date and plan on your member account.
The rules, one by one
Each row below is a rule from the DROP section, in the handbook’s own words.
| Rule | What the handbook says |
|---|---|
| What DROP is | “The Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP) is an optional benefit that allows eligible police officers and firefighters to accumulate a lump sum of money for retirement.” |
| How you enter | “When you are eligible for a normal service retirement, you can enter DROP by delaying retirement and continuing to work as a full-time police officer or firefighter.” |
| Pension calculation | “Upon the DROP effective date, your pension will be calculated as if that were your date of retirement.” |
| While you participate | “While you continue to work and draw your normal salary, the amount you would have received in retirement benefits accumulates”, and the handbook adds “(note that the rate of interest is subject to change).” |
| Service credit | “Since your pension has already been calculated, service credit is not earned while participating in DROP.” |
| When DROP ends | “terminates your DROP participation, you begin to receive your monthly pension that was determined on your DROP effective date, plus an annual cost of living allowance (COLA) if you are at least age 55.” |
| Cost of living during DROP | “Members do not qualify for annual cost-of-living allowances at any time during DROP” |
| Health care | “You also will be eligible for health care benefits based on the eligibility guidelines in place at the time of your retirement.” |
| Taking the money | “You can begin to withdraw funds from your DROP accrual in a lump-sum payment or installments, as long as you have completed the required minimum participation period.” |
| The participation window | “You must work at least five years” in a covered position, and “terminate employment and retire within eight years of your effective date to receive the benefit of DROP.” |
| Too short a stay | “You will lose your accumulated interest if you participate in DROP for less than the minimum required years.” |
| Too long a stay | “If you work more than eight years from your DROP effective date, you forfeit all of your DROP accruals, but will receive normal retirement benefits upon retirement and will receive service credit for the DROP participation period.” |
The figures the handbook prints
Each figure here sits inside one running sentence. The age and service rule is “normal service retirement eligibility is age 52 with at least 25 years of service.” The participation window is “You must work at least five years” followed by “retire within eight years of your effective date to receive the benefit of DROP.”
What to do and where to look
For more detail the handbook sends members elsewhere: “For more information on the program, please refer to the Member’s Guide to DROP.” Compare the DROP rules with the general picture in how DROP plans work in general and the survivor choices in single life versus joint and survivor pensions, then read the wider set of public pension retirement decisions.
Edition
This page reads Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, Member Handbook for New Members, the current file the fund served on October 21, 2026. Check the edition and your own tier or plan on your own member account; the handbook’s text controls over this summary.
Common mistakes
- Assuming service credit keeps building during DROP. The handbook says “service credit is not earned while participating in DROP.”
- Counting on cost-of-living increases while in the plan. The handbook says “Members do not qualify for annual cost-of-living allowances at any time during DROP”.
- Ignoring the participation limits at either end. The handbook warns “You will lose your accumulated interest if you participate in DROP for less than the minimum required years.” It also says “If you work more than eight years from your DROP effective date, you forfeit all of your DROP accruals”.
Related: Ohio Police and Fire retirement decisions, how DROP plans work in general, single life versus joint and survivor pensions, and public pension retirement decisions.
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Answer againSources
- Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund, Member Handbook for New Members: www.op-f.org
- Related official page (not quoted): Ohio Revised Code Chapter 742: codes.ohio.gov
- Related official page (not quoted): Ohio Administrative Code rules for the Ohio police and fire pension fund: codes.ohio.gov
Read from the pension system handbooks linked above on October 21, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a pension system or a qualified professional is the right place to confirm anything consequential.