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ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 598
(By Senators Foster and Minard)
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[Introduced February 16, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to repeal §18-7A-24 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended; and to amend and reenact §18-7A-23 and §18-7A-25 of
said code, all relating to the State Teachers Retirement
System; deleting provisions which allowed for the
distribution, without a contributor's consent, of accumulated
contributions to the State Teachers Retirement System to a
contributor with fewer than five years of service, who quits
service or ceases to be a member; and correcting code
references.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-7A-24
of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be repealed; and that §18-7A-23 and §18-7A-25
of said code be
amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-23. Withdrawal and death benefits.
Benefits upon withdrawal from service prior to retirement
under the provisions of this article shall be as follows:
(a) A contributor who withdraws from service for any cause
other than death or retirement shall, upon application, be paid his
or her accumulated contributions plus refund interest up to the end
of the fiscal year preceding the year in which application is made,
but in no event shall interest be paid beyond the end of five years
following the year in which the last contribution was made:
Provided, That such contributor, at the time of application, is
then no longer under contract, verbal or otherwise, to serve as a
teacher; or
(b) If a contributor with fewer than five years of established
service does not apply for the refund of his accumulated
contributions within five years from the year in which he quits
service, then his accumulated contributions plus refund interest,
up to and including the fifth year, shall be returned to such
member or to his legal representative; or
(c) (b) If such contributor has completed twenty years of
total service, he or she may elect to receive at retirement age an
annuity which shall be computed as provided in this article:
Provided, That if such contributor has completed as least five, but
fewer than twenty years of total service in this state, he or she
may elect to receive at age sixty-two an annuity which shall be
computed as provided in this article. The contributor must notify
the retirement board in writing concerning such election. If such contributor has completed fewer than five years of service in this
state, he or she shall be subject to the provisions as outlined in
subsections (a) or (b) subsection (a) above.
Benefits upon the death of a contributor prior to retirement
under the provisions of this article shall be paid as follows:
(1) If the contributor was at least fifty years old, and if
his or her total service as a teacher was at least twenty-five
years at the time of his or her death, then the surviving spouse of
the deceased, provided said the spouse is designated as the sole
refund beneficiary, shall be is eligible for an annuity which shall
be computed as though the deceased where actually a retired teacher
at the time of death, and had selected a survivorship option which
pays such the spouse the same monthly amount which would have been
received by the deceased; or
(2) If the facts do not permit payment under the preceding
paragraph (1), then the following sum shall be paid to the refund
beneficiary of the contributor: His The contributor's accumulated
contributions with refund interest up to the year of his or her
death plus the amount of his or her accumulated contributions. The
latter sum shall emanate from the employer's accumulation fund.
§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 (a) (1) or (b)
(2) of this subsection and meets the conditions of subdivision (c)
(3) of this section 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 (1) (e) of this section, annually for five years
after retirement, and thereafter at such times required by the
retirement board. 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 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.
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