§ 135-60. Disability retirement benefits. - North Carolina Statutes

§135‑60.  Disability retirement benefits.

(a)        Upon retirement fordisability in accordance with G.S. 135‑59, a member shall receive adisability retirement allowance computed and payable as provided for serviceretirement in G.S. 135‑58(a2) except that the member's creditable serviceshall be taken as the creditable service he would have had had he continued inservice to the earliest date he could have retired on an unreduced serviceretirement allowance as a member in the same division of the General Court ofJustice in which he was serving on his disability retirement date.

(b)        Once each yearduring the first five years following retirement of a member on a disabilityretirement allowance, and once in every three‑year period thereafter, theBoard of Trustees may, and upon his application shall, require any disabilitybeneficiary who has not yet attained his sixtieth birthday to undergo a medicalexamination, such examination to be made at the place of residence of thebeneficiary or other place mutually agreed upon, by a physician or physiciansdesignated by the Board of Trustees. Should any disability beneficiary who hasnot yet attained his sixtieth birthday refuse to submit to at least one medicalexamination in any such year by a physician or physicians designated by theBoard of Trustees, his allowance may be discontinued until his withdrawal ofsuch refusal, and should his refusal continue for one year, it shall be assumedthat he is no longer disabled.

(c)        Should the medicalboard certify to the Board of Trustees that a disability beneficiary prior tohis sixty‑fifth birthday has recovered to the extent that he would notsatisfy the requirements for disability retirement if he were an active memberof the Retirement System, or if his disability shall be assumed to haveterminated in accordance with subsection (b) above, his disability retirementallowance shall thereupon cease, he shall be restored as a member of theRetirement System, and the period during which he was in receipt of adisability retirement allowance shall not be included in his creditableservice.

(d)        The Board ofTrustees shall determine whether a disability beneficiary is engaged in or isable to engage in a gainful occupation paying more than the difference, ashereinafter indexed, between his disability retirement allowance and the grosscompensation earned as an employee during the 12 consecutive months in thefinal 48 months of service prior to retirement producing the highest grosscompensation excluding any compensation received on account of termination. Ifthe disability beneficiary is earning or is able to earn more than thedifference, the portion of his disability retirement allowance not provided byhis contributions shall be reduced to an amount which, together with the portionof the disability retirement allowance provided by his contributions and theamount earnable by him shall equal the amount of his gross compensation priorto retirement. This difference shall be increased on January 1 of each year bythe ratio of the Consumer Price Index to the Index one year earlier, calculatedto the nearest tenth of one percent ( 1/10th of 1%). Should the earningcapacity of the disability beneficiary later change, the portion of hisdisability retirement allowance not provided by his contributions may befurther modified. In lieu of the reductions on account of a disabilitybeneficiary earning more than the aforesaid difference, he may elect to converthis disability retirement allowance to a service retirement allowance calculatedon the basis of his final compensation and creditable service at the time ofdisability retirement and his age at the time of conversion to serviceretirement. This election is irrevocable. (1973, c. 640, s. 1; 1981, c.975, s. 4; c. 980, s. 5; 1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1031, s. 19; 1999‑237,s. 28.24(g).)