Senate Bill No. 258
(By Senators Schoonover, Fanning, Deem, Chafin, Sharpe and
Hunter)
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[Introduced March 7, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; then to the Committee on Education 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 annuity.
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 whose sum of age plus years of
service, as a teacher in West Virginia,
equals or exceeds 80
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.
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 permit school
employees to be eligible for a retirement annuity without penalty
if the sum of their age plus their years of service equal or
exceeds 80.
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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