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Introduced Version Senate Bill 331 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 331

(By Senator Foster)

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[Introduced January 21, 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; and to amend and reenact §18-7A-25 of said code, all relating to qualifying for total and permanent disability retirement in the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System.

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; and that §18-7A-25 of said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 5. GENERAL POWERS AND AUTHORITY OF THE GOVERNOR,

SECRETARY OF STATE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL; BOARD OF

PUBLIC WORKS; MISCELLANEOUS AGENCIES, COMMISSIONS,

OFFICES, PROGRAMS, ETC.

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 not due to vicious habits, intemperance or willful misconduct on his or her part, 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 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 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 member or former member and, based upon the third physician's report in writing, the board may retire said 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 physical or mental disability.
(c) 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 and he or she shall have the right to elect an option provided for in section twenty-four hereof: 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 subject to section twenty-six hereof.
§18-7A-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.
(a) Any member who has attained the age of sixty years or who has had thirty-five years of total service as a teacher in West Virginia, regardless of age, is eligible for an annuity. No new entrant nor present member is eligible for an annuity, however, if either has less than five years of service to his or her credit.
(b) Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia is eligible for an annuity.
(c) Any member who has served at least thirty but less than thirty-five years as a teacher or nonteaching member in West Virginia and is less than fifty-five years of age is eligible for an annuity, but the annuity shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the member would have received if the member were age fifty-five at the time such annuity was applied for of application for the annuity.
(d) The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in writing to the retirement board, but except in case of retirement for disability, the written request may be made by either the member or the employer.
(e) A member is eligible for annuity for disability if he or she satisfies the conditions in either subdivision (1) or (2) of this subsection and meets the conditions of subdivision (3) of this subsection as follows:
(1) His or her service as a teacher or nonteaching member in West Virginia must total at least ten years and service as a teacher or nonteaching member must have been terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused absence from service for at least six months before his or her application for disability annuity is approved.
(2) His or her service as a teacher or nonteaching member in West Virginia must total at least five years and service as a teacher or nonteaching member must have been terminated because of disability, which disability must have caused absence from service for at least six months before his or her application for disability annuity is approved and the disability is a direct and total result of an act of student violence directed toward the member.
(3) An examination by a physician or physicians selected by the retirement board must show that the member is at the time mentally or physically incapacitated for service as a teacher, that for that service to serve in his or her current occupation and that the incapacitation is not due to vicious habits, intemperance or willful misconduct on his or her part and that the disability is total and likely to be permanent and that he or she should be retired in consequence of the disability.
(f) Continuance of the disability of the retired member shall be established by medical examination, as prescribed in subdivision (3), subsection (e) of this section, annually for five years after retirement, and thereafter at such times required by the retirement board. Effective July 1, 1998, a member who has retired because of a disability may select an option of payment under the provisions of section twenty-eight of this article: Provided, That any option selected under the provisions of section twenty-eight of this article shall be in all respects the actuarial equivalent of the straight life annuity benefit the disability retiree receives or would receive if the options under said the section were not available and that no beneficiary or beneficiaries of the disability annuitant may receive a greater benefit, nor receive any benefit for a greater length of time, than the beneficiary or beneficiaries would have received had the disability retiree not made any election of the options available under said section. In determining the actuarial equivalence, the board shall take into account the life expectancies of the member and the beneficiary: Provided, however, That the life expectancies may at the discretion of the board be established by an underwriting medical director of a competent insurance company offering annuities. Payment of the disability annuity provided in this article shall cease immediately if the retirement board finds that the disability of the retired teacher member no longer exists, or if the retired teacher member refuses to submit to medical examination as required by this section.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify the circumstances under which a member may qualify for total and permanent disability retirement under the provisions of the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System and the state Teachers' Retirement System.

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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