Withdrawing your AEELA savings for a catastrophic illness

The rule is you cannot touch them. The exception is in the statute

If you are a public employee in Puerto Rico, the 3% withheld for AEELA's Savings and Loan Fund is not a bank account: you cannot draw on that money whenever you like. That is what **Article 24 of Act 9-2013**, the Employees Association statute, says.

But that same article opens **two** exceptions, and almost nobody knows the second one. Employees contributing to the Fund may not dispose of the withheld amounts **except**:

That second exception is a right that exists **by statute**, not an administrative favor. And note its reach: it covers treatment for **a member of your family nucleus**, not only your own. The condition limiting it is also written down: the savings **may not be pledged guaranteeing debts with the Association**. If you have a loan backed by those savings, that portion is not available.

• **When you definitively cease** in your post or employment.
• **When the funds are needed to treat a catastrophic illness that endangers the life** of the member **or of one of the members of their family nucleus**, provided those funds are **not pledged guaranteeing debts** with the Association.

What counts as a catastrophic illness, under this statute

There is no need to guess: **Article 2(l)** of the same statute carries the definition, and it has **two halves**. Many people know only the first and rule out their case because of it.

**First half:** an illness whose **foreseeable effect, certified by a physician, is loss of life**, and for which medical science has shown there is treatment that remedies or relieves the condition, **or that can extend the patient's life**.

**Second half, the one that gets overlooked:** it also includes **illnesses or conditions that are not catastrophic** in that sense, **but that have caused a permanent impairment** that could be **seriously aggravated** without medical intervention through treatment shown to remedy it or keep it from worsening.

And that second half carries a condition of its own worth reading closely: **if it concerns the member themselves, the impairment must not incapacitate them for work**. That is how the statute puts it.

What the definition does require in its first half is a **physician's certification**. This is not a good-faith filing.

What happens to your membership: two different paths

Here is the detail that decides whether you leave AEELA or not, and it sits in the last paragraph of Article 24. The statute separates two situations and gives them opposite consequences.

It is a weighty difference. On the first path you leave the membership rolls; on the second you stay in and **begin a new savings account without interruption**, which is exactly what preserves the continuity of your relationship with the Association.

• **If you request the exception while on unpaid leave, or you must take leave to undergo the treatment:** you will be **removed from the Association's membership rolls**.
• **If you can keep working while being treated, or you request the benefit because a member of your family nucleus is ill:** you will **not** be removed; instead you will **begin a new savings account without interruption**.

If you go on unpaid leave, your insurance does not lapse on its own

**Article 33** protects the member on unpaid leave or temporarily suspended from employment and pay: they **keep their rights to the death benefit and the insured years-of-service benefit**, provided that **on returning to their post the premium deductions resume**.

Back premiums shown on your account are **collected directly** or **deducted from future loan disbursements** with the Association, or from any benefit or refund you are entitled to. And there is a protection worth knowing: **if the member dies while on unpaid leave, they remain covered**, and the premiums owed are deducted from the death benefit.

The last paragraph of Article 33 is what connects to this guide: that same provision **applies equally to a member who takes the catastrophic illness benefit**, provided that when applying they are on unpaid leave or intend to take leave for treatment that will keep them from working.

Why deductions continue even while you are on leave

This part explains a common surprise on the pay stub, and it comes from two articles that are almost never read together.

**Article 12** imposes a duty on **every government entity** that certifies payrolls by law: to report to AEELA's Executive Director **whenever an appointment, death, resignation, separation or suspension** occurs for an employee under its jurisdiction. And something more specific: it must **record on the payroll** that employees **on leave have not expressed an intent to resign** when the leave ends, in which case **the deduction corresponding to that leave period must be made** against any debt or obligation with the Association.

That same article closes with the hard part: if the employee's intent is to resign, or if there is a separation, **the officials in charge of certifying payrolls are obligated to order the deduction of the full amount** (or whatever is necessary) to settle any outstanding debt with the Association.

**Article 13** sets where loan installments come from: **the employee's monthly salary, or the pension** of retired members, upon the Association notifying the payroll officers at government entities and retirement systems. It adds that the Association **may debit your account** for any amount owed for **other financial services** when you breach that service's terms.

That last power is not unlimited on paper: that same Article 13 orders that **the Delegate Assembly approve regulations guaranteeing the member notice of the debt and time to respond and object to it**. If you are debited without notice, that is the mandate to cite.

What the statute does not say and we will not invent

Article 24 creates the right but **delegates the procedure**: the Delegate Assembly shall establish **by regulation** the rules for determining member **eligibility** for this exception and **the procedures for processing applications**, «taking into account the urgency with which they must be handled».

**We could not locate that regulation**, so you will not find here which form is used, what medical documents are required, how long it takes, or whether there are amount caps. None of that is in the statute and we will not describe it unseen. The statute does give you what to ask with: the right exists, it covers your family nucleus, and the statute itself orders the regulation to account for urgency.

Nor do we publish savings amounts, borrowing margins or loan terms: those are set by the Association, not by the statute.

What is worth requesting in writing, and keeping: whether your savings are pledged against any debt (because how much is available depends on that) and which of Article 24's two paths your situation falls under, because one removes you from the membership rolls and the other does not.