Remember all those Long Island Rail Road retirees who lost their disability pensions in the wake of a widespread fraud scandal? They’re getting them back.
The retirees lost their pensions because their disabilities were examined by two doctors convicted in the fraud scheme.
Since then, however, 702 have re-applied. Of the 486 cases that have been decided, only 33 claims were denied. That works out to a 91 percent approval rating.
The Post helped break the story of the $1 billion “gravy train.” It included people such as the maintenance man caught working for his black belt in jujitsu while collecting a disability pension. Now it looks as though it’s back to business as usual.
No one should be surprised. In February, the inspector general for the US Railroad Retirement Board that handles the pensions, Martin Dickman, warned the system is still so flawed that 96 percent of those who apply for disability pensions get them.
That’s basically the same approval rate as before, when almost every LIRR retiree was given a disability pension. Some say the re-approvals mean most claims were legitimate.
But Dickman says the real problem is low standards. An August report from the Government Accountability Office backs him up, calling the post-scandal safeguards “inadequate” to ensure disability determinations are accurate.
Dickstein himself calls the latest approval numbers “ludicrous,” telling Newsday “nothing’s really changed.” So it’s all aboard the LIRR gravy train.
For everyone but the taxpayers, that is.