Every person now or hereafter elected or appointed to an office of, or employed by, the City of the age of 60 years and upwards who shall have so served as an employee for a period of 20 years or more shall, upon application to the Board, be retired from service, and shall during the remainder of his life receive the compensation fixed by the provisions of 11 Pa.C.S. § 14340 and this part, as amended.
A. If any person shall have served 20 years and voluntarily retires he shall, by continuing his contributions until the age of 55, be entitled to the above compensation.
B. During the lifetime of any such person he shall be entitled to receive as compensation annually from the fund set aside for the purpose 50% of the amount which would constitute the highest average annual salary or wages which he earned during any five years of his service for the City, or which would be determined by the rate of the monthly pay of such person at the date of retirement, whichever is higher. Said compensation shall be paid in semimonthly payments.
C. Retirement compensation for members who are integrated into federal Social Security payable after early or normal retirement age and upon that portion of annual compensation on which Social Security benefits are payable shall be reduced by an amount of equal to 40% of the primary insurance amount of Social Security, paid or payable to the member. In determining such age eligibility and such amount, only wages or compensation for services performed in the employ of the City shall be included. (Note: These provisions change if the offset is eliminated by payment of the additional 1 1/2% of all salary and wages retroactive to January 1, 1960).
D. Widows or widowers of members who die or are killed in the service shall receive pension payments calculated at the rate of 50% of the pension the member was receiving, or would have been receiving had the member been retired at the time of his or her death. A widow or widower is entitled to receive these payments during his or her lifetime or until he or she remarries.
E. Where an officer or employee who shall have served for 12 years, or more, and his tenure of office or employment shall be terminated without his voluntary action before the expiration of 20 years of service and has attained the age of 60, he shall, in such event, during the remainder of his life, be entitled to receive such portion of the full compensation as the period of his service up to date of its termination bears to the full twenty-year period of service. Where an officer or employee who has served for 12 years, or more, and shall not have attained 60 years of age and his tenure of office or employment shall be terminated without his voluntary action, before the expiration of 20 years of service, he shall, in such event, during the remainder of his life after attaining the age of 60 years, be entitled to receive such portion of the full compensation as the period of his service up to date of its termination bears to the full twenty-year period of service. Both are conditioned upon his payment of contributions into the fund until he attains contribution for 20 years upon state of benefits of age 60 years.
F. Notwithstanding anything herein contained to the contrary, a member may be entitled to a limited vested benefit under the following conditions:
(1) A member who has completed 12 years or more of full-time continuous service but shall not have attained the minimum age and minimum period of continuous service may be entitled to vest his retirement benefits subject to all of the following conditions:
(a) The member must file with the Officers and Employees Retirement Board of the fund a written notice of his intention to vest.
(b) The member must include in the notice the date the member intends to terminate his service.
(c) The termination date shall be at least 30 days later than the date of notice to vest.
(d) The member must be in good standing with the City on the date of the notice to vest.
(e) The Board shall indicate on the notice to vest the rate of the monthly pay of the member as of the date of the notice to vest or the highest average annual salary which the member received during any five years of service preceding that date, whichever is higher.
(2) Upon reaching the date which would have been the member's retirement date had the member continued employment with the City, the member shall notify the Board in writing that the member desires to collect his pension. The amount of retirement benefits the member is entitled to receive under this section shall be computed as follows:
(a) The initial determination of the member's base retirement benefits shall be computed on the salary indicated on the notice to vest; and
(b) The portion of the base retirement due the member shall be determined by applying to the base amounts the percentage that his years of service actually rendered bears to the years of service which would have been rendered had the member continued to be employed by the City until his minimum retirement date. As used in this section, the term "salary" means the fixed amount of compensation paid at regular, periodic intervals by the City to the member and from which pension contributions have been deducted.
G. Where an officer or employee has served for 20 years, or more, and his tenure of office or employment shall be terminated without his voluntary action, then he shall be entitled to full compensation for the remainder of his life after attaining age 55 years conditioned upon his continuing his contributions into the fund at the same rate as when he was dismissed, until he attains age of 55 years.