Human Resources Academy II for Community College Districts

4. T ERMINATION OF D ISABILITY A LLOWANCE

The Education Code provides several circumstances under which a disability allowance may be terminated, including:

 An individual willfully fails to initiate and continue participation in a Treatment plan as determined by the board; 111  An individual willfully fails to initiate and continue participation in a Rehabilitation program; 112  A medical examination, together with other available information, shows to the satisfaction of the board that the member is no longer disabled; 113  An individual’s average earnings for any prior continuous six months amount to 66⅔% of the indexed final compensation; 114 or  An individual attains the normal retirement age of 60 and has no dependent children. 115

 Those hired after January 2013 will have a normal retirement age of 62.

5. C ALCULATING S ERVICE R ETIREMENT A LLOWANCE AFTER R ECEIVING A D ISABILITY A LLOWANCE There are several methods used to determine an employee’s service retirement after the employee has received a disability allowance. The correct method will depend upon the termination of disability allowance and whether the individual works. If the individual worked to the age of 60, the disability allowance is automatically terminated. Before calculating an individual’s service retirement allowance, an individual’s service credit will be projected through the duration of his or her disability. 116 The final compensation used for the disability allowance will be projected forward at the compounded rate of 2% per year. 117 The retirement allowance is then calculated using an individual’s actual and projected service credit and projected final compensation. The individual will receive either the service retirement allowance or the disability allowance he or she had been receiving prior to his or her 60th birthday, whichever is less. 118 This provision provides a cap on what an individual may receive.

E. D ISABILITY R ETIREMENT G ENERALLY

1. E LIGIBILITY Employees hired after October 15, 1992, or who opted for Option B, are only eligible for disability retirement coverage. When an employee receives disability retirement, he or she is considered retired, that is, terminated from employment, and does not continue to accrue service credit.

Human Resources Academy II for Community College Districts ©2019 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 55