COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2430
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss)
[Originating in the Committee on Finance]
[February 26, 1998]
A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-five, article seven-a,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the state
teachers retirement system; and retirement plan selection by
teachers retired due to disability.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-five, article seven-a, chapter eighteen
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.
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, shall be eligible for an annuity. No
new entrant nor present member shall be eligible for an annuity,
however, if either has less than five years of service to his
credit.
Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and
who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia shall
be eligible for an annuity.
Any member who has served at least thirty but less than
thirty-five years as a teacher in West Virginia and is less than
fifty-five years of age shall be eligible for an annuity, but the
same shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the
member would have received if such member were age fifty-five at
the time such annuity was applied for.
The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in
writing to the retirement board, but in case of retirement for
disability, the written request may be made by either the member
or the employer.
A member shall be eligible for annuity for disability if he
satisfies the conditions in both (a) and (b) as follows:
(a) His service as a teacher in West Virginia must total at
least ten years, and service as a teacher must have been
terminated because of disability, which disability must have
caused absence from service for at least six months before his
application for disability annuity is approved.
(b) 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 such service the disability is total and likely to be
permanent, and that he should be retired in consequence thereof.
Continuance of the disability of the retired teacher shall
be established by medical examination, as prescribed in the preceding paragraph, annually for five years after retirement,
and thereafter at such times as the retirement board may require.
Effective the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-eight, 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 section twenty-eight of this chapter
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 such
beneficiary or beneficiaries would have received had the
disability retiree not made any election of the options available
under said section twenty-eight. 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 no longer exists, or if the retired teacher
refuses to submit to medical examination as required by this
section.