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or the loss of earning power of the
employee. Systems which incorporate
the latter features must be administered
with a great degree of flexibility and
they present the further problem of
providing adequate safeguards against
fraud and malingering. For this reason,
some of the pension systems provide
for payments from the pension fund
only for complete and long-term dis
ability, and make provision for pay
ments in other contingencies through
sick-leave allowances, by a system of
group insurance, or the operation of a
separate fund. It is generally agreed
that payments for temporary disability
should not be made a part of the pension
plan.
The amount of payments s h o u l d
take into consideration at least the
extent of the disability and the mini
mum subsistence required for disabled
employees. The amount of payments
should be sufficiently large to accom
plish the elimination of disabled from
the service, and small enough to dis
courage malingering and fraud.
Death Benefits
Claims for death benefits arise under
two main contingencies:, for death due
to some cause traceable to the occupa
tion, and for death from causes not
connected with the service. Benefits
for death not connected with the serv
ice are less common than benefits on
account of service-connected d e a t h ,
largely because of the fact that the
governmental unit has no direct re
sponsibility as is the case where death
is due to the occupation. However, the
provision of death benefits without re
gard to cause of death is in accord
w i t h the current" emphasis on eco
nomic security for the employee and his
family.
Death benefits are of several dif
ferent types, classified according to
whether the payments are in the form
of : ( 1 ) a return of the employee’s con
tributions with accumulated interest to
his dependents or his estate; (2) an
annuity to the widow of the employee,
based upon the amount of his salary
or the length of service, or both; (3)
payments to the widow, plus an allow
ance for each dependent child, or pay
ments to dependent children left w ith
out parents, or (4) in case there are
no dependents of any kind, payments
for the burial expenses for the employee.
For accidental death in line of duty
the responsibility of the employer is
greater than for death from ordinary
causes and the amount of the payments
is normally corresponding greater. Gen
erally there is provision to the effect
that if there are payments under work
men’s compensation laws these are off
set against pension payments otherwise
provided. The minimum payment on
account of death should be the amount
of the employee’s contributions plus
accumulated interest and less a deduc
tion to cover the cost of protection
which the employee has already enjoyed
under an insurance benefit. In addition
to this, however, special benefits are
in most cases desirable.
Refunds
In cases of dismissal or resignation
from the service before eligibility for
retirement on a pension, provision is
usually made for a refund to the em
ployee of his accumulated contribu
tions. Apart from the non-contributory
systems, three of the Illinois pension
statutes make no provision for refunds
of the contributions of employees in
case of withdrawal from the service.
These are the downstate police a n d
firemen’s pension systems and the fire
insurance patrolmen’s system, all oper
ating on the stipulated annuity basis.
The allocation reserve plans provide for
a full refund of regular annuity con-
c o n tin u e d on page 37)
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