H. B. 2338
(By Delegates Argento, Martin, Perry, Caputo, Eldridge,
Hamilton, Varner, Kominar and Campbell)
[Introduced January 13, 2010; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-7A-25 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the waiting period required for
teachers to collect disability retirement benefits.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-7A-25 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§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.
(d) 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.
(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 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 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 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 eliminate the six month
waiting period for those in the Teachers Retirement System to
receive disability retirement benefits.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.