|
Senate Bill 1669 |
Senate Author: Duncan |
|
Effective: 6-17-11 |
House Sponsor: Truitt |
Senate Bill 1669 amends provisions of the Government Code relating to the resumption of service by retirees under the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS). Current law disqualifies a retiree from an entitlement to service or disability retirement benefit payments for any month in which the retiree is employed in any position by a Texas public educational institution. The bill makes that disqualification inapplicable to a retiree who is eligible for service retirement and whose effective date of retirement is on or before January 1, 2011. The bill establishes that employment of such a retiree does not entitle the retiree to additional service credit and that the retiree is not required to make contributions to the system from compensation for that employment. Such a retiree is entitled to the resumption of monthly benefit payments beginning on the first payment date occurring on or after the bill's effective date if the person's benefit payments were suspended under previous law because of the person's resumption of employment, but the retiree is not entitled to recover benefit payments not made during the time those payments were suspended.
Senate Bill 1669 prohibits TRS from withholding a monthly benefit payment if a retiree is employed in a Texas public educational institution in one or more positions on as much as a full-time basis if the retiree has been separated from service with all Texas public educational institutions for at least 12 full consecutive months after the retiree's effective date of retirement, rather than if the work occurs in not more than six months of a school year that begins after the retiree's effective date of retirement. The bill removes provisions applying the prohibition against withholding a monthly benefit payment to specific employment as a classroom teacher in an acute shortage area, a principal who retired without a reduction for an early retirement, a bus driver, or a faculty member in an undergraduate or graduate professional nursing program.
Current law prohibits TRS from withholding a monthly benefit payment to a disability retiree if the disability retiree is employed in a Texas public educational institution in a position, other than as a substitute, for a period not to exceed three consecutive months of the school year and if certain other conditions apply. Senate Bill 1669 removes the condition that the three consecutive months occur within a school year.