disability pensions | Pension360

Nevada Newspaper: State Pension Needs Disability Reform

The editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal called on lawmakers Tuesday to deal with the “outrageous abuses” it says are plaguing the state’s disability pension system.

From the Review-Journal:

We know the Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada provides retirement benefits to people who aren’t retired. But did you know the taxpayer-funded pension plan also provides disability benefits to former government workers who aren’t disabled?

[…]

The Review-Journal exposed the PERS disability giveaways last year in an investigation of the termination of Las Vegas police officer Jesus Arevalo. On Oct. 15, 2013, Mr. Arevalo became the first Metropolitan Police Department officer to be fired over an improper use of deadly force. In 2011, he killed Stanley Gibson, an unarmed, mentally ill Gulf War veteran who became lost while driving around an apartment complex parking lot. That tragedy, which followed a Review-Journal investigative series on police use of deadly force, led to major changes in department training, policies and oversight — and a $1.5 million settlement for Mr. Gibson’s widow.

Mr. Arevalo was on paid suspension for almost two years while termination proceedings played out. But weeks before his firing was finalized, Mr. Arevalo submitted disability retirement paperwork — for stress related to his firing and the shooting that prompted his firing. The “retirement” was approved by his immediate supervisor, a personal physician, the PERS board and the pension agency’s doctor.

Mr. Arevalo, who was 36 at the time of his firing, will collect about $2,500 per month for the rest of his life, plus cost of living increases. Over 35 years, he could collect more than $1 million.

Anyone who receives federal disability benefits or long-term disability benefits through a private insurer isn’t supposed to work. But Mr. Arevalo’s disability claim applies only to police work. He can collect his PERS disability benefits and work in another field.

Read the entire editorial here.

Photo by TaxRebate.org.uk

New York City Council Weighs Disability Pension Boost For Police

A New York City councilwoman is sponsoring a resolution that would ask the state to increase the disability pensions of certain city police officers.

The resolution has the support of two-thirds of the City Council, but doesn’t yet have the support of the mayor’s office or the Council speaker.

From Capital New York:

Under the current law, uniformed workers are placed into a tier system based on when they are hired. Workers with less time on the job only receive 50 percent of their pensions. Workers hired before 2009—the last time the law was changed —get 75 percent of their pension in disability benefits.

Crowley’s proposal would create parity among the different pension tiers for all employees of the uniformed services.

“Every emergency responder is taking the same risk, and every responder deserves the same disability benefits if they get hurt,” Crowley said.

Since it’s a law that can only be enacted at the state level, the Council must pass what is known as a “home rule message,” indicating to Albany that it supports the legislation and would urge the governor to sign it into law.

Last year, the Council failed to act on the resolution and never passed the home rule message, so the state Legislature was not able to move a corresponding bill. Similar legislation was passed in 2009, but then-governor David Paterson vetoed it.

The Council hearing has not been scheduled yet. The bill will also have to be reintroduced in Albany’s new legislative session before it can be sent to the floor for a vote.

[…]

De Blasio has said he would oppose because of concerns over its cost. But the mayor doesn’t have the power to veto this sort of Council resolution.

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has said she is reviewing the request. Her spokesman said today that still hasn’t taken a position on it.

Similar pieces of legislation have been proposed on an annual basis since 2009. In 2009, the legislation was passed but subsequently vetoed by Gov. David Paterson.

Lagerkvist: Here Are the Seven Deadly Sins of the New Jersey Pension System

New Jersey’s pension system is shouldering $51 billion of unfunded liabilities. How did it get that way?

In an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer, investigative reporter Mark Lagerkvist goes through what he calls the “seven deadly sins” of the state’s pension system. Excerpted from the article:

#1 – Retirement shams

A New Jersey Watchdog investigation revealed state attorneys general rehired 23 of their own retirees as investigators and supervisors. More than half of those law enforcement officials “retired” for only one day before they went back to work for the state.

The rehired retirees collected $3.77 million a year — $1.56 million a year in pension pay plus $2.21 million in salaries. Such costly personnel maneuvers have happened so often that state officials even have a name for it — “resignation pickup.”

#2 – Full pensions for part timers

The loophole, exclusive to the Public Employees Retirement System, is open to a wide range of part-time elected and appointed officials from New Jersey’s 565 municipalities, 590 public school districts, 21 counties and other governmental entities.

The list includes state legislators, county freeholders, mayors, councilmen, school board members, prosecutors, judges, town attorneys, tax assessors and many others who work for public entities covered under PERS, the largest New Jersey retirement fund.
#3 – Double-dippers and triple-dippers

Eighty percent of New Jersey sheriffs — elected in 17 of the state’s 21 counties — collect pensions as law enforcement retirees in addition to their six-figure salaries. Their payrolls include 29 undersheriffs who also double-dip. Overall, those 46 top county cops rake in $8.3 million a year – $3.4 million in retirement pay plus $4.9 million in salaries.

#4 – Disability pension abuses

5,500 retired police officers in New Jersey receive more than $200 million a year in disability pensions. They have been judged “totally and permanently disabled” by the state Police and Firemen’s Retirement System or State Police Retirement System.

“I’d say 95 percent of the disability applications are questionable,” said John Sierchio, former chair of the PFRS Board of Trustees. “It’s people who don’t want to work anymore.”

#5 – Ill-advised health benefit costs

If you think a $51 billion pension deficit is bad, here’s something worse.

The New Jersey state retirement system also faces a staggering $53-billion shortfall in funding retiree medical benefits, according to a report released by state actuaries last month.

#6 – The deadbeat state

From fiscal 2006 through 2011, New Jersey shortchanged its pension funds by more than $10 billion. Instead of contributing the expected $13.1 billion to the retirement accounts during that period, the state only pitched in $2.3 billion, according to a report by Common Sense Institute of New Jersey.

#7 – The $100,000 Club

New Jersey’s $100,000 Club of retired public officials has ballooned by 75 percent in the past three years. It is growing at a faster rate than the state’s pension deficit.

A total of 1,731 retirees collected $100,000 a year or more from state pensions last year, an increase of 739 pensioners since 2010, according to a New Jersey Watchdog analysis of Treasury data.

Mark Lagerkvist is an investigative reporter at the watchdog group New Jersey Watchdog.

There’s much more in the way of explanation over at the article, here.