§778. Disability retirement

A. Eligibility for disability benefits, procedures for application for disability benefits, procedures for the certification of continuing eligibility for disability benefits, the authority of the board of trustees to modify disability benefits, and procedures governing the restoration to active service of an employee who formerly had a disability are specifically described and provided for in R.S. 11:201 through 224.

B. The board of trustees shall award disability benefits to eligible members who have been officially certified as having a disability by the State Medical Disability Board.

C. Upon the application of a member in service or of his employer, any member whose first employment making him eligible for membership in one of the state systems occurred on or before December 31, 2010, and who has five or more years of creditable service may be retired by the board of trustees, not less than thirty nor more than ninety days following the date of filing such application, on a disability retirement allowance, provided that the medical board, after a medical examination of the member, certifies that the member is mentally or physically incapacitated for the further performance of the duties currently being performed, that the incapacity is likely to be total and permanent, and that the member should be retired. Any member whose first employment making him eligible for membership in one of the state systems occurred on or after January 1, 2011, shall be eligible for disability benefits if he has ten or more years of creditable service.

D. Disability retirees whose first employment making them eligible for membership in one of the state systems occurred on or before December 31, 2010, and who had at least fifteen years of service prior to being certified as having a disability and who have been receiving disability benefits for at least ten years and who have attained at least age fifty shall be eligible to convert from disability benefits to regular retirement benefits, provided that any such retiree's regular retirement benefits shall be based on the number of years actually credited to the member's account, and provided that such conversion does not produce a benefit that creates an actuarial cost to the system.

E. Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 2 of Act No. 572 of the 1995 Regular Session, any member who received an estimate of disability benefits from the system during the period between August 1, 1995 and August 31, 1995, both inclusive, and who applied for such benefits on June 21, 1996, shall be paid benefits based on the estimate received from the system, and the disability benefits shall be recalculated according to R.S. 11:779 as that provision existed on June 30, 1995.

Amended by Acts 1978, No. 648, §5, eff. July 13, 1978; Acts 1978, No. 727, §3, eff. Jan. 1, 1979; Redesignated from R.S. 17:637 by Acts 1991, No. 74, §3, eff. June 25, 1991; Acts 2001, No. 678, §1, eff. June 25, 2001; Acts 2001, No. 794, §1, eff. June 26, 2001; Acts 2010, No. 992, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 2011; Acts 2014, No. 811, §4, eff. June 23, 2014.

NOTE: Acts 2014, No. 811 changed terminology referring to persons with disabilities throughout the La. Revised Statutes and codes of law, and included a listing of terms that were deleted and their respective successor terms (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §36). The Act provides that it is not the intent of the legislature that changes in terminology effected therein alter or affect in any way the substance, interpretation, or application of any law or administrative rule; further provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to expand or diminish any right of or benefit for any person provided by any law or administrative rule (See Acts 2014, No. 811, §35(C) and (D)).