Relates to eligibility for ordinary disability benefits and re-employment of disability retirees of the New York city police pension fund Tier III plans

• Democratic1
• Republican1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Robert Jackson says this is needed

In July 2009, upon the veto of the Tier 2 extender bill, new entrants to the New York City Police Pension Fund became governed by Article 14 of the New York State Retirement and Social Security Law, the Coordinated Escalator Retirement Plan, also known as Tier 3. All uniformed members of the NYPD hired on or after July 1, 2009 were de facto placed into a drastically different pension plan than Tiers 1 and 2. Among these differences is the restriction that a member be in receipt of primary social security disability insurance ("SSDI") to be eligible for ordinary disability retirement - a benefit intended by this legisla- ture to be available to uniformed members of the service who become disabled as the result of an incident that does not occur in the line of duty. Receipt of SSDI is an incredibly high bar for the uniformed members of the NYPD to attain, as it requires an individual to be perma- nently disabled from any employment, not solely the inability to perform the duties of a police officer, which was the standard for Tiers 1 and 2. This mandate could lead to a denial of benefits for members who are permanently disabled from police work and bravely served and protected the residents of the City of New York. When the extension of Tier 2 retirement benefits was vetoed in 2009, eligibility for benefit was rendered unattainable for the aforementioned reasons, which was not the legislative intent. Adjusting the eligibility for ordinary disability retirement would thus restore the benefit and correct this inequity.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.