§ 215.7. Rights and duties of school employees and members.
(a) Information on new employees. Each new school employee shall provide the employer with a complete record of previous school or State service, or creditable nonschool service, proof of date of birth, in the order of preference set forth in subsection (b), home address, current status in the System and other information the Board may require. Willful failure to provide the information required by this subsection, to the extent available, or the furnishing of erroneous information upon entrance into the System shall result in the forfeiture of the right of the member to subsequently assert any right to benefits based on the erroneous information or on any of the required information which the member failed to provide, intentionally or otherwise. If the Board finds that a member is receiving an annuity based on false, misleading or improper information, the additional amounts received predicated on the information together with statutory interest doubled and compounded shall be deducted from the present value of any remaining benefits to which the member is legally entitled and the remaining benefits shall be correspondingly decreased.
(b) Proof of date of birth. Proof of date of birth will be accepted in the following order of preference:
(1) Birth certificate.
(2) Baptismal record.
(3) Selective service record.
(4) Armed forces discharge.
(5) Passport.
(6) School record.
(7) Life insurance policy.
(8) Naturalization record.
(9) Alien registration record.
(10) Other records as may be submitted by the member, which are acceptable to the Board.
(c) Election of multiple service. An active member from and after the effective date of the Retirement Code who was formerly a member in the State Employees’ Retirement System, may elect multiple service coverage if the election is made no later than 365 days after active membership in this System.
(d) Beneficiaries. Every member shall nominate a beneficiary and, if desired, a contingent beneficiary, in writing with the Board. In all these cases, the designated or contingent beneficiary, as the case may be, shall be the only one entitled to receive the accumulated deductions or the death benefit for those who die in service or those who would be entitled to a benefit under Option 1 under section 8345 of the Retirement Code (relating to member’s options). If the beneficiary or designated contingent beneficiary fails to survive the member, the payment, subject to the limitation in 20 Pa.C.S. § 3101 (relating to payments to family and funeral directors) shall be paid to the next of kin. If the applicable limitation cannot be met, the payment, in the absence of a designated beneficiary, shall be paid to the estate upon the submission of documents required by the Board to authorize payment.
(e) Termination. Upon termination of service, a member, by written application, may elect to do one of the following:
(1) Withdraw the accumulated deductions, thereby forfeiting other benefit, to which the member would otherwise be entitled.
(2) Vest the retirement account, thereby making the member eligible for the vesting benefits as otherwise provided in this part. If the member is a joint coverage member, the member may elect to become a full-coverage member and to pay the lump sum required within 30 days subsequent to termination of service.
(3) Receive an immediate annuity and, in the case of joint coverage membership, pay the lump sum required to become a full-coverage member within 30 days of termination of service.
(f) Rights of vestees. A vestee may, subsequent to vesting, and at any time during the vesting period, withdraw the accumulated deductions, thereby forfeiting other benefits to which the vestee would be otherwise entitled, or apply for an annuity, if the vestee has at least five eligibility points. The vestee shall also nominate a beneficiary to receive the vested benefits should the vestee fail to survive the receipt of the benefit.
(g) Right of vestee at superannuation age. For a vestee to be entitled to, and receive, an annuity, effective the date the vestee attains superannuation age, the vestee shall file an application no later than 90 days thereafter. An application subsequently filed shall be effective upon the date filed. If a vestee dies within the 90-day period subsequent to superannuation age, not having filed an application for benefits, the vestee shall be deemed to have elected the automatic death benefit Option 1.
(h) Nomination of beneficiary or survivor annuitant. A member in receipt of a reduced annuity, under any of the options, shall have the following rights with regard to designation of a beneficiary or survivor annuitant:
(1) If a member elects Option 1, the member may change the designated beneficiary at any time.
(2) If the member elects a survivor annuity option, a new survivor annuitant may not be named except when the survivor annuitant predeceases the member or the member has a change in marital status subsequent to the election of the option. In these cases, the annuity shall be recomputed to be actuarially equivalent as of the date of recomputation to the annuity in effect immediately prior thereto. In this case, the member may elect a new option in addition to the new survivor annuitant. A benefit plan may not be changed by an annuitant.
(3) An annuitant having a right to reelect an option and name a new survivor annuitant under the circumstances in paragraphs (1) and (2), may do so at any time after the death of the beneficiary or change in marital status.
(i) Retirement Code reference: Section 8507 of the Retirement Code (relating to rights and duties of school employees and members).
Source The provisions of this § 215.7 amended October 16, 1998, effective October 17, 1998, 28 Pa.B. 5226; amended August 1, 2008, effective August 2, 2008, 38 Pa.B. 4083. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (249426) and (328589) to (328590).
Notes of Decisions Election of Multiple Service
A claimant cannot be permitted to purchase years of prior State service after the statutory 30-day limit has expired even though the only notice of the 30-day time period she received was in a ‘‘welcome’’ letter from the Public School Employes’ Retirement System personally addressed to her with an application enclosed, and allegedly she received no such notice from her employer, the school district. Tyson v. Public School Employes’ Retirement System, 737 A.2d 325 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1999); appeal denied 757 A.2d 937 (Pa. 2000).
Nomination of Beneficiaries Form
Decedent, who was a member of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) and had previously designated her children as beneficiaries on Nomination of Beneficiaries form supplied by PSERS, executed an Assignment shortly before her death purporting to make trust beneficiary of her PSERS account; the Assignment filed by Trustee was rejected because purported change in beneficiaries was not an effective change since it was not on the form provided by the Public School Employees’ Retirement Board as required by regulation. Greene v. Public School Employees’ Retirement Board, 878 A.2d 153, 157 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2005).
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