SECOND REGULAR SESSION

SENATE BILL NO. 1062

90TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY


INTRODUCED BY SENATOR HOWARD.

Read 1st time March 1, 2000, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.



TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.

3161S.02I


AN ACT

To repeal sections 169.060 and 169.663, RSMo Supp. 1999, relating to disability benefits in teacher and school employee retirement systems, and to enact in lieu thereof two new sections relating to the same subject.


Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

Section A.  Sections 169.060 and 169.663, RSMo Supp. 1999, are repealed and two new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 169.060 and 169.663, to read as follows:

169.060.  1.  On and after the first day of July next following the operative date, any member who is sixty or more years of age and whose creditable service is five years or more, or whose sum of age and creditable service equals eighty years or more, or who has attained age fifty-five and whose creditable service is twenty-five years or more, or whose creditable service is thirty years or more regardless of age, may retire upon written application to the board of trustees and receive the full retirement benefits on the member's creditable service.  Any other member whose creditable service is twenty-five or more years, or who has attained age fifty-five and whose creditable service is at least five years but less than twenty-five years, may retire upon written application to the board of trustees and receive the actuarial equivalent of the benefit to which the member would be entitled if the member was sixty years of age.

2.  On and after the first day of July next following the operative date, any member who is teaching in a district included in the retirement system at the time the member becomes disabled, or who has taught in such a district at some time in the twelve months immediately preceding the member becoming disabled, and whose disability is traceable to an injury or sickness which was sustained or commenced prior to the cessation of such teaching, and whose age is less than sixty and whose creditable service in districts included in the retirement system is five years or more, may be retired with disability benefits as provided in sections 169.010 to 169.141 upon written application to the board of trustees, if the member is incapacitated because of physical or mental disability as such disability is herein defined.  If such disability shall cease to exist before the recipient of such benefits reaches age sixty, the member's membership status as of the date of the member's disability retirement shall be restored.  If the member seeks, before becoming eligible for such retirement allowance, to withdraw the member's accumulated contributions, the total of such disability payments shall be deducted from the amount otherwise due the member.

3.  Disability, as a basis for retirement, shall render the individual incapable of earning a livelihood in any occupation and shall be of such a nature as to warrant the assumption that it will be permanent.  Whether or not such disability exists in any case shall be adjudged in the manner provided in subsection 15 of section 169.020 by the board of trustees on the basis of reports made by two or more physicians selected by the board to examine the member.  Until the member reaches age sixty, the recipient of a disability retirement allowance may be required to submit to periodic examinations by physicians selected by the board, and if any such examination shows that the recipient is no longer incapable of earning a livelihood in any occupation, the member's disability retirement shall be terminated.  For the purposes of adjustments to Social Security Administration disability benefits pursuant to 20 CFR 404.408 any member receiving disability benefits pursuant to this section who is at least fifty-five years of age and whose creditable service is at least twenty-five years shall be considered to be receiving a normal retirement benefit pursuant to this section.

169.663.  1.  On or after July first next following October 13, 1969, any member who is serving an employer included in the system at the time the member becomes disabled, or who has served in such a district at some time in the twelve months immediately preceding the member's becoming disabled, and whose disability is traceable to an injury or sickness which was sustained or commenced prior to the cessation of such service, and whose age is less than sixty and whose creditable service is five years or more, may be retired with disability benefits upon written application to the board of trustees, if the member is incapacitated because of physical or mental disability as such disability is herein defined.  If such disability shall cease to exist before the recipient of such benefits reaches age sixty, the member's membership status as of the date of the member's disability retirement shall be restored.  If the member dies before becoming eligible for a retirement allowance, or if the member seeks to withdraw the member's accumulated contributions, the total of such disability payments shall be deducted from the amount otherwise due the member, the member's beneficiary, or the member's estate.

2.  "Disability", as a basis for retirement, shall render the individual incapable of earning a livelihood in any occupation and shall be of such nature as to warrant the assumption that it will be permanent.  Whether or not such disability exists, in any case, shall be adjudged in the manner provided in subsection 15 of section 169.020 by the board of trustees on the basis of evidence that the board by its regulations may require.

3.  For the purposes of adjustments to Social Security Administration disability benefits pursuant to 20 CFR 404.408 any member receiving disability benefits pursuant to this section who is at least fifty-five years of age and whose creditable service is at least twenty-five years shall be considered to be receiving a normal retirement benefit pursuant to this section.


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