West Virginia Code 15-2-30 – Awards and benefits for disability due to other causes
(a) If any employee who has served less than twenty years and who remains in the active service of the agency has, in the opinion of the board, become permanently partially or totally disabled to the extent that the employee cannot adequately perform the duties required of an employee of the agency from any cause other than those set forth in the preceding section and not due to vicious habits, intemperance or willful misconduct on his or her part, the employee shall be retired by the board. The employee is entitled to receive annually and shall be paid from the fund in equal monthly installments during a period equal to one-half the time he or she served as an employee of the agency or until the disability eligibility sooner terminates, a sum equal to five and one-half percent of the total salary which would have been earned during twenty-five years of service. At the end of the one-half time period of service, the benefit payable for the remainder of the retirant's life is an annual sum paid in monthly installments equal to one-half the base salary received by the retirant from the agency in the preceding twelve-month period immediately prior to the disability award: Provided, That if the retirant was not employed with the agency for twelve months immediately prior to the disability award, the amount of monthly salary shall be annualized for the purpose of determining the benefit.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 15-2-30
- Agency: means the West Virginia State Police. See West Virginia Code 15-2-25b
- Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
- Board: means the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board created pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 15-2-25b
- Employee: means any person regularly employed in the service of the agency as a law-enforcement officer before March 12, 1994, and who is eligible to participate in the fund. See West Virginia Code 15-2-25b
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- Totally disabled: means an employee's probable permanent inability to engage in substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determined physical or mental impairment that can be expected to result in death or that has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months. See West Virginia Code 15-2-25b
(b) If the employee, at the time of retirement under the terms of this section, has served twenty years or longer as an employee of the agency, the employee is entitled to receive annually and shall be paid from the fund in equal monthly installments, commencing on the date the employee is retired and continuing during his or her lifetime while in status of retirement or until the disability eligibility sooner terminates, a sum equal to five and one-half percent of the aggregate of salary paid to the retirant through the day immediately preceding his or her disability award, to be determined in the manner provided by subsection (c), section twenty-seven of this article.
(c) An employee awarded a disability benefit under the provisions of this section may receive retirement disability annuity payments on the day following the board's approval of his or her disability application. Upon termination of employment and receipt of properly executed forms from the agency and the employee, the board shall process the disability retirement benefit and commence annuity payments as soon as administratively feasible.
(d) For the purposes of this section, the term "salary" does not include any compensation paid for overtime service.