1. (1) On the application of a member in service or the member's employer, a member who has five or more completed years of earned service or any contributing member who is disabled as a result of an injury arising out of and in the course of the performance of the member's duties regardless of length of membership may be retired by the retirement board not less than thirty days and not more than nine months next following the date of filing the application on a disability retirement allowance if the system, after a medical examination of the member, certifies that the member is mentally or physically incapacitated for the further performance of duty, that the incapacity is likely to be permanent, and that the member should be retired. For purposes of this section, a member is considered to be in service on the date the application is filed if the member is not retired and the last day the member was employed by a covered employer in the system occurred not more than ninety days prior to the date of filing.

   The South Carolina Retirement System may contract with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to evaluate the medical evidence submitted with the disability application relative to the job being performed and make recommendations to the system. The system may approve a disability retirement subject to the member participating in vocational rehabilitation with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Upon determination by the department that a member retired on disability is able to reenter the job market and work is available, the retirement system may adjust the benefit paid by the system in accordance with Sections 9-1-1580, 9-1-1590, 9-9-60, and 9-11-90.

2. (2) Upon disability retirement, the member shall receive a disability retirement allowance which shall be equal to a service retirement allowance computed on the basis of his average final compensation, his years of credited service and his accumulated additional contributions at the date of his disability retirement; provided, however, that, at disability retirement, his disability retirement allowance shall be determined on the basis of the number of years of credited service the member would have completed had he remained in service until attaining age fifty-five and on the basis of the average final compensation. For the purpose of calculating the disability retirement allowance, the additional credited service so determined shall be either Class One service or Class Two service depending upon the classification of the member at time of retirement.
3. (3) Once each year during the first five years following the retirement of a member on a disability retirement allowance, and once in every three-year period thereafter, the Board may require any disability beneficiary who has not yet attained the age of fifty-five years to undergo a medical examination, such examination to be made at the place of residence of the beneficiary or other place mutually agreed upon, by the system. Should any disability beneficiary who has not yet attained the age of fifty-five years refuse to submit to any such medical examination, his retirement allowance may be discontinued until his withdrawal of such refusal, and should his refusal continue for one year all his rights in and to his retirement allowance may be revoked, but upon revocation any unexpended portion of his accumulated contributions to date of retirement shall be returned to him.
4. (4) If the system certifies that the member's disability has been removed and that he has regained his earning capacity, his disability retirement allowance may be discontinued, or if the disability has been partly removed and his earning capacity regained in part, the disability retirement allowance may be reduced proportionately. The determination of the Board as to any disputed question, after due consideration accorded to the member, is conclusive. Should the retirement allowance of any member retired for disability be discontinued or reduced, and should he again suffer disability within five years of the date of his recovery and again lose his earning capacity, he shall be entitled to apply to the Board for a restoration of his original retirement allowance, and the Board may restore all or part of his original retirement allowance. At the expiration of the five-year period, if the retirement allowance has not been restored, all rights in and to the member's disability retirement allowance are revoked. The member then is entitled to a deferred early retirement allowance as provided in Section 9-11-70 based upon his average final compensation and credited service at his date of disability retirement.
5. (5) After age fifty-five, a disability retiree is subject to the same earnings limitation as a service retiree.
6. (6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, upon retirement for disability after October 15, 1992, at any age, a member must receive a disability retirement allowance equal to at least fifteen percent of his average final compensation.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 61-338; 1962 (52) 1933; 1971 (57) 66; 1974 (58) 2032; 1979 Act No. 102 Section 2; 1979 Act No. 140 Section 1; 1980 Act No. 408; 1981 Act No. 32 Section 4; 1982 Act No. 466 Part II Section 23B; 1984 Act No. 383, Section 3; 1985 Act No. 74 Section 3; 1986 Act No. 529, Section 7, eff June 18, 1986; 1993 Act No. 166, Section 2, eff June 16, 1993; 2000 Act No. 387, Part II, Section 67N, eff January 1, 2001; 2010 Act No. 162, Section 3, eff May 12, 2010.