Senate Bill No. 146
(By Senator Kessler)
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[Introduced January 13, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §5-10-25 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the Public Employees Retirement
System; and preventing reduction of disability pensions at age
sixty-five.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5-10-25 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-25. Disability retirement.
(a) Upon the application of a member or former member of the
retirement system, or his or her present or past employing
authority, any member or former member who is in the employ of a
participating public employer or was in the employ of a
participating public employer on a date which is twelve months or
less from the date upon which the former member became incapacitated, who has ten or more years of credited service of
which three years is contributing service, and who becomes totally
and permanently incapacitated for employment, by reason of a
personal injury or disease, may be retired by the board if after a
medical examination of the
said member or former member made by or
under the direction of a medical committee consisting of two
physicians, one of whom
shall be is named by the board, and one by
the
said member or former member, the
said medical committee
reports, in writing, to the board that the
said member or former
member is physically or mentally totally incapacitated for
employment, that
such the incapacity will probably be permanent,
and that the
said member or former member should be retired. In
the event the two above-mentioned examining physicians do not agree
in their findings, then the board may, at its discretion, appoint
a third physician to examine
said the member or former member and,
based upon the third physician's report in writing, the board may
retire
said the member or former member. A former member who has
not been employed by a participating public employer may receive
disability retirement under the provisions of this subsection if,
in the opinion of the medical committee, the incapacity occurred
during the time that the former member was employed by a
participating public employer and the incapacity otherwise
qualifies the former member for retirement under this subsection.
(b) A member with less than ten years of credited service shall have the service requirement provided
for in subsection (a)
above, (including the requirement of three years contributing
service) waived in the event: (1) The board finds his or her total
and permanent disability to be the natural and proximate result of
a personal injury or disease arising out of and in the course of
his or her actual performance of duty in the employ of a
participating public employer, and (2) he or she is receiving or
has received workers' compensation benefits on account of
such the
physical or mental disability.
©For any member or former member retiring and any member
retired, as of March 1, 1970, he or she shall receive a straight
life annuity computed according to section twenty-two
hereof of
this article and he or she
shall have has the right to elect an
option provided
for in section twenty-four
hereof of this article:
Provided, That his or her straight life annuity
payable to his or
her attainment of age sixty-five years may not be less than fifty
percent of his or her final average salary:
and his or her said
straight life annuity payable from and after his or her attainment
of age sixty-five years may not be less than twenty percent of his
or her final average salary Provided, however, That his or her
said annuity
shall be is subject to section twenty-six
hereof of
this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prevent a reduction in
the annuity of a person who retires with disability retirement at
age sixty-five.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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