A. Upon a member filing an application for retirement or disability benefits, earned service credit for the time of contributory employment shall be certified by the director and subject to the review of the board.

B. A member shall be certified to have earned service credit for that period of time when the member was engaged in prior employment. Earned service credit shall not be certified for that period of employment for which the contributions have been withdrawn from the fund by the member.

C. Earned service credit shall be certified for periods of employment interrupted for some cause other than retirement or disability. This shall be done if a member withdrawing contributions from the fund for this period returns to the fund, for each year of earned service credit desired, a sum equal to the member's contribution to the fund during this period and an additional sum as interest compounded annually from the date the contributions were withdrawn to the date of payment of the amount of returned contributions at the rate of interest set by the board.

History: 1953 Comp., § 77-9-33, enacted by Laws 1967, ch. 16, § 156; 2003, ch. 39, § 9; 2017, ch. 21, § 13.

Cross references. — For reciprocal service credits under Public Employees Retirement Reciprocity Act, see 10-13A-4 NMSA 1978.

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, removed the provision that allowed the educational retirement board to accept installment payments for allowed service credit; in Subsection B, after "period of time when", deleted "he" and added "the member"; and in Subsection C, deleted the last sentence of the section which provided "These payments may be made in installments, and, if the payments made to the fund are insufficient for the restoration of any full year of earned service credit, the member shall be certified to have acquired earned service credit for that period of time which is proportionate to the payments made.".

The 2003 amendment, effective June 20, 2003, substituted "set by the board" for "earned by the fund during the five-year period immediately preceding the application for the earned service-credit" following "rate of interest" near the middle of Subsection C.