H. B. 2462


(By Delegates Dempsey, Ennis,

Hubbard, Yeager and Kuhn)


[Introduced February 22, 2001 ; referred to the

Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]




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 teachers retirement system; and permitting early retirement, with full pension rights, when a member has twenty-five years of service, regardless of age.

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 twenty-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 or her credit.
Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and who has served thirty twenty-five years as a teacher in West Virginia shall be eligible for an annuity.

Any member who has served at least thirty twenty but less than thirty-five twenty-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 is eligible for annuity for disability if he or she satisfies the conditions in either subdivision (a) or subdivision (b) and meets the conditions of subdivision (c) as
follows:
(a) His or her 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 or her application for disability annuity is approved.

(b) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must total at least five 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 or her application for disability annuity is approved and said 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 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.

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 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 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.
(d) Notwithstanding any of the other provisions of this section or of this article, any member of the retirement system may retire with full pension rights, without reduction of benefits, if the member has at least twenty-five years of contributing service, regardless of age.




NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide teachers retirement with full pension rights when their contributing service equals or exceeds 25 years, regardless of age.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.