A member shall be eligible for a disability retirement benefit on his disability retirement date. No minimum years of service are required for eligibility.
A. Disability retirement date. A member’s disability retirement date shall be the day that the member is totally disabled as a result of a service-connected disability. No disability retirement benefits shall be payable to a member who has suffered a non-service-connected disability.
B. Amount. A member’s disability retirement benefit shall be equal to 50% of the member’s final average salary. However, the disability retirement benefit shall not be reduced by the amount of any payments for which the member shall be eligible under the Act of June 2, 1915 (P.L. 736, No. 338), known as the “Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act,”
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or the Act of June 21, 1939 (P.L. 566, No. 284) known as the “Pennsylvania Occupational Disease Act.”
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C. Form of benefit. The disability retirement benefit shall be a monthly pension for life commencing on the first day of the month following the month in which the member became totally disabled.
D. Pension Committee. The Pension Committee shall have discretion to determine.
(1) Whether a member has a total disability, based on consultations with a medical examiner, who shall have the right to make such physical examinations and other investigations as may be reasonably required to determine total disability; and
(2) Whether a member’s total disability is a service-connected disability or a non-service- connected disability.
E. Total disability. A member has a total disability if he is permanently unable to perform the normal duties of a police officer by reason of physical or mental impairment.
F. Service-connected disability. A service-connected disability is a permanent injury that occurs in the course of, or results from, a member’s performance of his duties as a police officer.
G. Non-service-connected disability. A non-service-connected disability is a disability that does not occur in the course of, or result from, a member’s performance of his duties as a police officer. A member with a non-service-connected total disability shall be entitled to the following, at his option:
(1) A single lump sum payment of the amount in his total required contributions as defined in § A261-50 on the date he terminates employment with the township; or
(2) Vesting of his normal retirement benefit in accordance with § A261-44, provided that the member satisfies the years of service requirement for such vesting on the date of his termination of employment.
4. Editor’s Note: See 77 P.S. § 1 et seq.
5. Editor’s Note; See 77 P.S. § 1201 et seq.