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Some LIRR retirees could lose disability pensions

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO | alfonso.castillo@newsday.com

October 11, 2008

Some Long Island Rail Road retirees who took advantage of a federal disability pension that gave benefits to nearly anyone who applied could have those benefits taken away if changes being considered by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board are enacted, federal lawmakers from New York said after meeting Friday with the retirement board's members.

"If somebody gets the disability and is then playing golf five times a week and seems to have no physical problems, they ought not to have that," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who hosted the three members of the embattled federal agency in his Manhattan office.

Schumer, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and representatives from the offices of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) and Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates) met with the retirement board's three members - chairman Michael Schwartz, labor member V.M. Speakman Jr. and management member Jerome Kever.

Schumer said the group reached a "consensus" on several immediate changes to address controversy surrounding the board's approval of an unusually high number of disability claims. Many of the proposed changes dealt specifically with applications by Long Island Rail Road retirees.

Independent auditors have criticized the retirement board, which grants pensions instead of Social Security to railroad workers, for approving 98 percent of disability claims nationwide despite operating on poor or insufficient medical information. The board has said an inordinately high number of applications come from LIRR retirees.

Among the changes that Schumer and Bishop said they got the board members to tentatively agree upon were to use an independent doctor to review all disability cases, to re-examine their standards for ailments that have been cited in especially high numbers of disability applications, and to address procedures that allow railroad management members to receive disability benefits just as physical laborers do.

The board also agreed to consider having closer oversight of its Long Island regional office, and to re-evaluate any past, pending and future disability claims from LIRR employees. Bishop said that could entail regularly monitoring approved cases "to see if that disability continues."

"If they got the disability [benefits] under false pretenses or under a report that wasn't accurate," LIRR retirees could have those benefits taken away, Schumer said.

The LIRR's major unions - the Transport Workers Union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the United Transportation Union - did not return calls and e-mails for comment.

The retirement board's members, who traveled from their Chicago headquarters for the meeting, did not comment as they left. Later, Kever released a statement in which he thanked Bishop and Schumer for their leadership and agreed that changing the "outdated" railroad pension system was vital.

"A federal disability benefit program with a nationwide award rate of 98 percent simply cannot be justified as a prudent use of rail employer and rail employee tax dollars," said Kever, who renewed his call for congressional hearings and an investigation by the federal Governmental Accountability Office.

Four other state and federal agencies are probing the retirement board.

LIRR president Helena Williams, who reached out to New York's congressional delegation last week with her own proposed changes, said she "wholeheartedly" agreed with the recommendations made at the meeting, but added that congressional action is needed to enact reforms to ensure "that only those truly deserving of disability benefits receive them."

On track to reforming disability benefits

Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Tim Bishop said they reached a consensus with the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board in these areas:

Independent doctors will review railroad workers' disability claims, in addition to physicians chosen by disability applicants.

Re-evaluation of pending and future disability applications on Long Island, as well as previously approved cases.

Stricter oversight of the retirement board's regional Long Island office.

Possible changes in the standards for certain ailments that high numbers of disability applicants have claimed.

Immediate investigation of allowing management employees to obtain occupational disability benefits like those accorded employees who do physical labor.