Eligibility related

Looking at a plan doc prepared by another. Calendar plan.

401k eligibility is 6 months (in which 1000 hours of service is required) with entry date first month following completion of 6 months. Can the plan require 1000 hours of service where eligibility is 6 months?

PS is 12 months with 1000 hours so this is fine. Entry date is dual entry, 1st and 7th months.

Thank you

You can let them in after 6 months if they complete 1000 hours in 6 months, but you can't keep them out if they complete 1000 hours in more than 6 but within 12 months.

exactly

To understand what you said:

If they worked 1000 hours in 8 months, they enter in the 9th month, correct?

If that's what the plan says.

Thank you and happy holidays

Often though, the "plan B" eligibility provision, the 1000 hours in 12 months, requires the full 12 months to elapse like a traditional Year of Service requirement, so it's possible the guy who hits 1000 hours in month 8 doesn't come in until after the full 12 months elapse.  So as CBZ said, definitely check what the doc says to that effect.

There is also the new 500-hour rule from the SECURE Act.  Long-term part-timers have to be allowed partway into the plan.

If the sole eligibility rule is "1,000 hours within 6 months or within 12 months" then you would miss those people.

Yeah, but that's 2024 if they're smart enough to only count the years after 1/1/2021.