Results tagged “disabilityfraud”

After the NY Times revealed a stunning number of recent Long Island Rail Road retirees retired with disability payments (as high as 97% one year), Attorney General Andrew Cuomo held a hearing yesterday about the matter. He was unsparing in his assessment of the disability program, "There appears to have been a cottage industry, if you will, that developed to expedite the granting of disability benefits. It was a bad program design to begin with, and it was totally flawed oversight by the Railroad Retirement Board, by the LIRR, by the MTA."

Yesterday, the Westbury, Long Island office of the Railroad Retirement Board was was raided by federal agents who are investigating possible fraud in disability payments to Long Island Rail Road retirees. While the NY Times recently detailed how 90-97% of LIRR employees were applying for--and receiving--disability benefits upon retirement since 2000, it turns out the feds had been investigating the situation for the past six months.