Senate Bill No. 283
(By Senator Kessler)
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[Introduced January 26, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §5-10-25 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to public employees retirement act;
disability retirement; and eliminating reduction of a disabled
person's straight line annuity to twenty percent of his or her
final average salary upon attaining the age of sixty-five.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5-10-25 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-25. Disability retirement.
(a) Upon the application of a member or former member of the
retirement system, or his or her present or past employing
authority, any member or former member who is in the employ of a
participating public employer or was in the employ of a
participating public employer on a date which is twelve months or less from the date upon which the former member became
incapacitated, who has ten or more years of credited service of
which three years is contributing service, and who becomes totally
and permanently incapacitated for employment, by reason of a
personal injury or disease, may be retired by the board if after a
medical examination of the
said member or former member made by or
under the direction of a medical committee consisting of two
physicians, one of whom shall be named by the board, and one by the
said member or former member, the
said medical committee reports,
in writing, to the board that the
said member or former member is
physically or mentally totally incapacitated for employment, that
such the incapacity will probably be permanent, and that the
said
member or former member should be retired. In the event the two
above-mentioned examining physicians do not agree in their
findings, then the board may, at its discretion, appoint a third
physician to examine
said the member or former member and, based
upon the third physician's report in writing, the board may retire
said the member or former member. A former member who has not been
employed by a participating public employer may receive disability
retirement under the provisions of this subsection if, in the
opinion of the medical committee, the incapacity occurred during
the time that the former member was employed by a participating
public employer and the incapacity otherwise qualifies the former
member for retirement under this subsection.
(b) A member with less than ten years of credited service
shall have the service requirement provided
for in subsection (a)
above, including the requirement of three years contributing
service, waived in the event: (1) The board finds his or her total
and permanent disability to be the natural and proximate result of
a personal injury or disease arising out of and in the course of
his or her actual performance of duty in the employ of a
participating public employer; and (2) he or she is receiving or
has received workers' compensation benefits on account of
such the
physical or mental disability.
(c) For any member or former member retiring and any member
retired, as of March one, one thousand nine hundred seventy, he or
she shall receive a straight life annuity computed according to
section twenty-two
hereof of this article and he or she
shall have
has the right to elect an option provided
for in section twenty-
four
hereof of this article: Provided, That his or her straight
life annuity
payable to his or her attainment of age sixty-five
years may not be less than fifty percent of his or her final
average salary:
and his or her said straight life annuity payable
from and after his or her attainment of age sixty-five years may
not be less than twenty percent of his or her final average salary:
Provided, however, That his or her
said annuity
shall be is subject
to section twenty-six
hereof of this article.
`NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove the provision of
the law that reduces to 20% a disabled retiree's straight life
annuity upon reaching the age of sixty-five.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.