retirement for disability or incapacity—medical examination—recovery

retirement for disability or incapacity—medical examination—recovery Sec. 231. (a) Any participant who has five years of service credit toward retirement under the system, excluding military or naval service that is credited in accordance with provisions of section 251 or 252(a)(2), and who becomes totally disabled or incapacitated for useful and efficient service by reason of disease, illness, or injury not due Io vicious habits, intemperance, or willful misconduct on his part, shall, upon Iris own application or upon order of the Director, be retired on an annuity computed as prescribed in section 221. If the disabled or incapacitated participant is under sixty and has less than twenty years of service credit toward his retirement under the system at the time he is retired, his annuity shall be computed on the assumption that he has had twenty years of service, but the additional service credit that may accrue to a participant under this provision shall in no ease exceed the difference between his age at the time of retirement and age sixty, but this provision shall not increase the annuity of any survivor. (b) In each case, the participant shall be given a medical examination by one or more duly qualified physicians or surgeons designated by the Director to conduct examinations, and disability shall be determined by the Director on the basis of the advice of such physicians or surgeons. Unless the disability is permanent, like examinations shall be made annually until the annuitant has reached the statutory mandatory retirement age for his grade as provided in section 235. If the Director determines on the basis of the advice of one or more duly qualified physicians or surgeons conducting such examinations that an annuitant has recovered to the extent that he can return to duty, the annuitant may apply for reinstatement or 78 Stat. 1047reappointment in the Agency within one year from the date his recovery is determined. Upon application the Director may reinstate any such recovered disability annuitant in the grade in which he was serving at time of retirement, or the Director may, taking into consideration the age, qualifications, and experience of such annuitant, and the present grade of his contemporaries in the Agency, appoint him to a grade higher than the one in which he was serving prior to retirement. Payment of the annuity shall continue until a date six months after the date of the examination showing recovery or until the date of reinstatement or reappointment in the Agency, whichever Is earlier. Fees for examinations under this provision, together with reasonable traveling and other expenses incurred in older to submit to examination, shall be paid out of the fund. If the annuitant fails to submit to examination as required under this section, payment of the annuity shall be suspended until continuance of the disability is satisfactorily established. (c) if a recovered disability annuitant whose annuity is discontinued is for any reason not reinstated or reappointed in the Agency, he shall be considered to have been separated within the meaning of paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 234 as of the date he was retired for disability and he shall, after the discontinuance of the disability annuity, be entitled to the benefits of that section or of section 241(a) except that he may elect voluntary retirement in accordance with the provisions of section 233 if he can qualify under its provisions. (d) No participant shall be entitled to receive an annuity under this Act and compensation for injury or disability to himself under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, as amended (5 U.S.C. 751 et seq.), covering the same period of time. This provision shall not bar the right of any claimant to the greater benefit conferred by either Act for any part of the same period of time. Neither this provision nor any provision of the said Act of September 7, 1916, as amended, shall be so construed as to deny the right of any participant to receive an annuity under this Act by reason of his own services and to receive concurrently any payment under such Act of September 7, 1916, as amended, by reason of the death of any other person. (e) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, the right of any person entitled to an annuity under this Act shall not be affected because such person has received an award of compensation in a lump sum under section 14 of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, as amended (5 U.S.C. 764), except that where such annuity is payable on account of the same disability for which compensation under such section has been paid, so much of such compensation as has been paid for any period extended beyond the date such annuity becomes effective, as determined by the Secretary of Labor, shall be refunded to the Department of Labor, to be paid into the Federal employees’ compensation fund. Before such person shall receive such annuity he shall (1) refund to the Department of Labor the amount representing such commuted payments for such extended period, or (2) authorize the deduction of such amount from the annuity payable to him under this Act, which amount shall be transmitted to such Department for reimbursement to such fund. Deductions from such annuity may be made from accrued and accruing payments, or may be prorated against and paid from accruing payments in such manner as the Secretary of Labor shall determine, whenever he finds that the financial circumstances of the annuitant, are such as to warrant such deferred refunding.