Colorado § 24-51-701 - Eligibility to apply for short-term disability program payments and disability retirement.

§ 24-51-701. Eligibility to apply for short-term disability program payments and disability retirement.

(1) Except as otherwise provided for in this section, any member shall be eligible to apply for disability retirement benefits or short-term disability program payments if:

(a) Application is received by the association within ninety days after the date of termination of employment;

(b) The member contribution account has not been refunded;

(c) The member has at least five years of earned service credit, of which at least six months have been earned during the most recent period of membership;

(d) The member is not eligible for service retirement pursuant to the provisions of section 24-51-602.

(2) State troopers shall be eligible to apply for disability retirement or short-term disability program payments immediately upon becoming state troopers if the disability resulted from injuries sustained during the performance of duties as a state trooper.

(3) Members of the judicial division shall be eligible to apply for disability retirement or short-term disability program payments without regard to the amount of earned service credit or to eligibility for service retirement.

(4) Applications for disability for DPS members filed on or before December 31, 2009, shall be governed by the disability provisions of section 24-51-1734, and on or after January 1, 2010, disability shall be governed by the provisions of this part 7. Persons receiving disability benefits under the DPS plan as of December 31, 2009, shall continue to receive such benefits in accordance with the DPS plan.

Source: L. 97: Entire part R&RE, p. 775, § 12, effective January 1, 1999. L. 2009: (4) added, (SB 09-282), ch. 288, p. 1345, § 33, effective January 1, 2010.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 24-51-701 as it existed prior to 1997.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. The following annotations include cases decided under prior versions of this section.

Prior version of law contained no filing time limitation. Because at the time state employee's employment ceased, this section contained no filing time limitation, and, therefore, employee's application for disability retirement annuity was timely filed. Hurricane v. Pub. Employees' Retirement Ass'n, 703 P.2d 588 (Colo. App. 1984).

Employer's records are to be used to determine date of employee's termination of employment, and PERA acted outside the scope of its authority and contrary to law when it determined a date of termination that was contrary to the employer's records. Kennedy v. Pub. Emp. Retirement Ass'n, 768 P.2d 1264 (Colo. App. 1988).

The offset to a claimant's temporary and permanent disability pension benefits should continue so long as the disability benefits continue and should not automatically terminate based upon claimant's achieving 65 years of age. State Penitentiary v. Toothaker, 832 P.2d 1009 (Colo. App. 1991).

Trooper's right to disability benefits fully vested at the time he fulfilled the statutory conditions not at time of injury. Knuckey v. Pub. Emp. Retirement Ass'n, 851 P.2d 178 (Colo. App. 1992).

PERA disability benefit prior to age 65 replaces future earnings and does not constitute marital property. In re Hansen, 62 P.3d 1066 (Colo. App. 2002).

When disabled employee reaches the age of 65, the portion of PERA benefits attributable to years of service before disability constitutes marital property, and the balance remains separate property. Regardless of employee's recovery or work status, the benefits, excluding the unearned service credit projected until age 65, are more akin to retirement benefits. In re Hansen, 62 P.3d 1066 (Colo. App. 2002).