PT to FT eligibility

[Guest JohnSB]

An employee of an employer with a 401(k) Safe Harbor plan has worked for them for 5 years. They have never been eligible to participate because they have worked less than the required 1,000 hours in each plan year. Participants are required to have 1,000 hours in one year of service. They went full time last July. When will the participant be eligible for deferrals and for the safe harbor contribution?

Are they eligible right away when they have the 1,000 hours in the plan year since they already have more than 1 year of service?

[pmacduff]

Your plan document should tell you.

In most of our documents if the person does not meet the initial eligibility then the computation period for that person switches to the plan year.

The employee then needs to work over 1000 hours in that plan year entering on the following January 1 for example in a calendar year plan.

Hope this helps.

[WDIK]

The plan document should define the appropiate eligibility period and entry date. What type of document and language is being used?