Long Island Rail Road Fruad
The story about Long Island Rail Road retirees collecting disability benefits is heating up after it was discovered that some were seeking disability payments from private insurers also. According to the New York Times, close to 97 percent of retired LIRR workers are receiving disability payments from the federal Railroad Retirement Board on top of their normal retirement package. Apparently now some of those retired employees are seeking private disability payments as well.
On Tuesday the railroad gave the state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, and the inspector general of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority evidence raising the possibility that hundreds of its employees were buying private disability insurance policies knowing that the federal railroad board would declare them disabled.
In referring the matter to state investigators, L.I.R.R. officials said their suspicions were raised by two types of disability insurance purchased by railroad employees. One is a general, short-term disability policy; the other guarantees payment of auto loans, credit card debts or personal loans in the event the policyholder is unable to work.
L.I.R.R. officials wrote to the investigators that the pattern of insurance policy purchases “raise a concern in light of the high rate of disability pensions awarded by the R.R.B.”
The disparities were found after the Times invoked the Freedom Of Information Act and the LIRR went to investigate how many employees are using private disability insurance. The initial story by the Times seems to have been the impetus for the fraud investigation:
Two days after The Times first reported that virtually all career L.I.R.R. employees were getting federal disability payments after retiring, federal agents raided the Long Island office of the retirement board, seizing records and computers. Mr. Cuomo’s office has been issuing subpoenas to people associated with the granting of federal disability pensions.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
[...] was first revealed a few weeks ago that Long Island Rail Road retirees were collecting double disability claims, and now the New York Times is reporting that a group of “disability consultants and [...]