LIRR’s disability express
96% still approved
The gravy train is chugging along.
A federal railroad board is still handing out disability benefits to almost every LIRR worker who applies — less than three years after a massive scandal revealed rampant abuse and led to federal prosecutions, according to a new report.
The board’s staff doesn’t have to verify medical evidence of a disability, has had little training to weed out scammers, uses outdated information to determine if railroad workers should get disability benefits and doesn’t set performance goals to improve its accuracy.
Approval of the benefits for LIRR retirees by the US Railroad Retirement Board is still 96 percent, indicating that new standards implemented since the scandal aren’t working, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Out of 519 LIRR disability applications, a staggering 496 were approved.
The approval rate hasn’t changed since the fraud scheme was first revealed in 2011, which led to convictions of 33 pension fraudsters by the US Attorney’s Office — including a union president, doctors and a former Railroad Retirement Board manager, as well as retirees.
The railroad board also has the same workers determine both whether someone is eligible for disability and how much the applicant will receive — even though using different staffers to make those determinations would help fight corruption, according to the analysis.
“There’s still a significant risk that there could be a repeat of this,” said Charles Brecher, consulting research director at the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission.
The retirement board did not respond to a request for comment.
An MTA spokesman said the agency agrees with the GAO that there needs to be major change in federal disability programs.
“The LIRR strongly believes disability benefits should be reserved for those who are truly disabled, and we agree with the US GAO that there is a need for major reform in how the federal government administers disability programs,” said spokesman Aaron Donovan.