Senate Bill No. 553
(By Senator Ball, Ross, Dawson, Sharpe, Fanning, Helmick and
Mitchell)
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[Introduced February 21, 2000; referred to the
Committee on Education; then to the Committee on Pensions; and
then to the Committee on Finance.]
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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 eligibility
for retirement under the state teachers retirement system;
and providing teacher retirement eligibility, with full
pension rights, when a member's age plus years of total
service equals or exceeds eighty-five.
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 is eligible for an annuity.
No new entrant nor present member shall be is eligible for an
annuity, however, if either has less than five years of service
to his or her 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 may retire with full pension rights, without
reduction of benefits, when the sum of the member's age plus
total years of service equals or exceeds eighty-five.
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 is eligible for an annuity, but
the same annuity shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the
annuity the member would have received if such the member were age fifty-five at the time such the 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 is eligible for an annuity for disability
if he or she satisfies the conditions in either subdivision (a)
or subdivision (b) of this section and meets the conditions of
subdivision (c) of this section, as follows:
(a) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
shall total at least ten years, and service as a teacher must
shall have been terminated because of disability, which
disability must shall have caused absence from service for at
least six months before his or her application for disability
annuity is approved.
(b) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
shall total at least five years, and service as a teacher must
shall have been terminated because of disability, which
disability must shall have caused absence from service for at
least six months before his or her application for disability
annuity is approved and said the disability is a direct and total result of an act of student violence directed toward the member.
(c) An examination by a physician or physicians selected by
the retirement board must shall 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 or she should be retired in
consequence thereof of the disability.
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
requires. 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 article 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 the 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide teacher
retirement eligibility, with full pension rights, when a member's
age plus years of total service equals or exceeds eighty-five.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.