FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 1194

C 78 L 15

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Addressing the death benefits of a surviving spouse of a member of the law enforcement officers' and firefighters' retirement system or the state patrol retirement system.

Sponsors: House Committee on Labor (originally sponsored by Representatives Kirby, Holy, Van De Wege, Hayes, Stokesbary, Fitzgibbon and Bergquist; by request of LEOFF Plan 2 Retirement Board).

Labor: 1/27/15, 2/10/15 [DPS];

Appropriations: 2/26/15, 2/27/15 [DPS(LAB)].

Background:

The Law Enforcement Officers' and Firefighters' Retirement System (LEOFF) provides retirement and disability benefits to law enforcement officers and firefighters. Similarly the Washington State Patrol Retirement System (WSPRS) provides retirement and disability benefits to commissioned officers of the Washington State Patrol.

Workers injured in the course of employment are entitled to various industrial insurance benefits. If death results from the injury, the surviving spouse receives a monthly benefit of 60 to 70 percent (depending on the number of children) of the wages of the deceased spouse. If the surviving spouse remarries, benefits are discontinued at the end of the month in which the remarriage occurs. Payments to the children continue. The remarried spouse may choose to receive a lump sum of 24 times the monthly rate, or to have the monthly payments suspended and then resume if the remarriage is terminated by death or dissolution. For surviving spouses of a member of the LEOFF and the WSPRS the lump sum option is 36 times the monthly rate. Only members of LEOFF Plan 2 are eligible for industrial insurance.

Summary:

If a surviving spouse of a member of the LEOFF or the WSPRS who died as a result of the injury no longer receives industrial insurance benefits because of remarriage, the surviving spouse is entitled to an amount equal to the industrial insurance benefit he or she would have received but for the remarriage, payable from the LEOFF or WSPRS, as appropriate. Payments resume for surviving spouses who remarried prior to the effective date, and if the surviving spouse received a lump sum payment, monthly payments are actuarially reduced. The amounts paid to spouses for whom payments resume are also payable from the LEOFF or WSPRS, as appropriate.

Votes on Final Passage: