West Virginia Code 5-10-29 – Members’ deposit fund; members’ contributions; forfeitures
(a) The members' deposit fund is hereby created. It shall be the fund in which shall be accumulated, at regular interest, the contributions deducted from the compensation of members, and from which refunds of accumulated contributions shall be paid and transfers made as provided in this section.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 5-10-29
- Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all amounts deducted from the compensations of a member and credited to his or her individual account in the members' deposit fund, together with regular interest on the contributions. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- 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.
- Annuity: means an annual amount payable by the retirement system throughout the life of a person. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- board: means the Board of Trustees of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Compensation: means the remuneration paid a member by a participating public employer for personal services rendered by the member to the participating public employer. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Employee: means any person who serves regularly as an officer or employee, full-time, on a salary basis, whose tenure is not restricted as to temporary or provisional appointment, in the service of, and whose compensation is payable, in whole or in part, by any political subdivision, or an officer or employee whose compensation is calculated on a daily basis and paid monthly or on completion of assignment, including technicians and other personnel employed by the West Virginia National Guard whose compensation, in whole or in part, is paid by the federal government: . See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Member: means any person who has accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the members' deposit fund. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Participating public employer: means the State of West Virginia, any board, commission, department, institution, or spending unit, and includes any agency created by rule of the Supreme Court of Appeals having full-time employees, which for the purposes of this article is considered a department of state government. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Regular interest: means the rate or rates of interest per annum, compounded annually, as the board of trustees adopts from time to time. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Retirement: means a member's withdrawal from the employ of a participating public employer and the commencement of an annuity by the retirement system. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- Service: means personal service rendered to a participating public employer by an employee of a participating public employer. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- State: means the State of West Virginia. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
- system: means the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System created and established by this article. See West Virginia Code 5-10-2
(b) The contributions of a member to the retirement system (including any member of the Legislature, except as otherwise provided in subsection (g) of this section) shall be a sum of not less than three and five-tenths percent of his or her annual compensation but not more than four and five-tenths percent of his or her annual compensation, as determined by the board of trustees: Provided, That for persons who first become members of the retirement system on or after July 1, 2015, the contributions to the system shall be six percent of his or her annual compensation beginning July 1, 2015. The said contributions shall be made notwithstanding that the minimum salary or wages provided by law for any member shall be thereby changed. Each member shall be deemed to consent and agree to the deductions made and provided for herein. Payment of a member's compensation less said deductions shall be a full and complete discharge and acquittance of all claims and demands whatsoever for services rendered by him or her to a participating public employer, except as to benefits provided by this article.
(c) The officer or officers responsible for making up the payrolls for payroll units of the state government and for each of the other participating public employers shall cause the contributions, provided in subsection (b) of this section, to be deducted from the compensations of each member in the employ of the participating public employer, on each and every payroll, for each and every payroll period, from the date the member enters the retirement system to the date his or her membership terminates. When deducted, each of said amounts shall be paid by the participating public employer to the retirement system; said payments to be made in such manner and form, and in such frequency, and shall be accompanied by such supporting data, as the board of trustees shall from time to time prescribe. When paid to the retirement system, each of said amounts shall be credited to the members' deposit fund account of the member from whose compensations said contributions were deducted.
(d) In addition to the contributions deducted from the compensations of a member, as heretofore provided, a member shall deposit in the members' deposit fund, by a single contribution or by an increased rate of contribution as approved by the board of trustees, the amounts he or she may have withdrawn therefrom and not repaid thereto, together with regular interest from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment. In no case shall a member be given credit for service rendered prior to the date he or she withdrew his or her contributions or accumulated contributions, as the case may be, until he or she returns to the members' deposit fund all amounts due the said fund by him or her.
(e) Upon the retirement of a member, or if a survivor annuity becomes payable on account of his or her death, in either event his or her accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the members' deposit fund shall be transferred to the retirement reserve fund.
(f) In the event an employee's membership in the retirement system terminates and no annuity becomes or will become payable on his or her account, any accumulated contributions standing to his or her credit in the members' deposit fund, unclaimed by the said employee, or his or her legal representative, within three years from and after the date his or her membership terminated, shall be transferred to the income fund.
(g) Any member of the Legislature who is a member of the retirement system and with respect to whom the term "final average salary" includes a multiple of eight, pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (13), section two of this article, shall contribute to the retirement system on the basis of his or her legislative compensation the sum of $540 each year he or she participates in the retirement system as a member of the Legislature.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this article, forfeitures under the system shall not be applied to increase the benefits any member would otherwise receive under the system.