Eligibility - Limitations - Commencement and cessation of benefits. A. The State Board is authorized to pay a pension to the beneficiary of any member where requirements for eligibility for such pension are met as provided in this subsection. The pension shall be in an amount as the State Board shall provide not exceeding the accrued retirement benefit or normal disability benefit. Before any beneficiary of a member shall be entitled to any pension the member must have complied with any agreement as to contributions by the member and other members to the System where said agreement has been made as provided by this article, and the State Board must find that: 1. The member lost his or her life while in, and in consequence of, the performance of the member’s duty and through no negligence on the member’s part; and 2. The member left a beneficiary. B. The State Board is authorized to pay a pension to the beneficiary of any member where requirements for eligibility for such pension are met as provided in this subsection. The member’s beneficiary shall receive the member’s accrued retirement benefit. Before any beneficiary of a member shall be entitled to any pension the member must have complied with any agreement as to contributions by the member and other members to the System where said agreement has been made as provided by this article, and the State Board must find that: 1. The member completed ten (10) years of credited service and died from any cause; and 2. The member left a beneficiary. C. If such finding is made, a pension shall be allowed, limited as provided in this article. The pension shall commence to the beneficiary of the member within one (1) year of the death of the member and, except as otherwise provided in this section, shall be payable over the life of the beneficiary. If the beneficiary is a child of the member, the pension payments shall cease automatically when the child reaches eighteen (18) years of age or twenty-two (22) years of age if the child is enrolled full time and regularly attending a public or private school or any institution of higher education. If the beneficiary is a surviving spouse of a member who remarried prior to June 7, 1993, and was a surviving spouse of a member who died while in, or as a consequence of, the performance of the member’s duty for the employer, the surviving spouse shall be eligible to receive the pension benefits provided for in this section. To receive the pension benefits provided for in this section the surviving spouse falling within this section shall submit a written request for such benefits to the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System. The Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System shall approve requests by surviving spouses meeting the requirements of this section. Upon approval by the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System, the surviving spouse shall be entitled to the pension benefits provided for in this section beginning from the date of approval forward. Pension benefits provided to surviving spouses falling within this section shall not apply to alter any amount of pension benefits paid or due prior to the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System’s approval of the remarried surviving spouse’s written request for benefits. No surviving spouse shall receive benefits from this section, Section 49-113 of this title, or Section 2-306 of Title 47 as the surviving spouse of more than one member of the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, the Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System, or the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System. The surviving spouse of more than one member shall elect which member’s benefits he or she will receive. Added by Laws 1977, c. 256, § 50-117, eff. July 1, 1978. Amended by Laws 1980, c. 356, § 23, eff. Jan. 1, 1981; Laws 1985, c. 221, § 8, emerg. eff. July 8, 1985; Laws 1988, c. 267, § 14, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1994, c. 84, § 4, eff. July 1, 1994; Laws 1994, c. 351, § 3, eff. July 1, 1994; Laws 2004, c. 551, § 7, emerg. eff. June 9, 2004.
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