More than half of the FDNY’s retirees collected their pension after claiming to have been disabled in an accident while on duty — resulting in dramatically higher payouts, pension documents show.
The analysis from the New York City Fire Pension shows that payments to those retired under accidental disability accounted for $963 million of its $1.5 billion in payouts, almost two-thirds of every dollar spent in 2021.
“Something is wrong here — and demands an investigation. Either the disability program is being abused, or most fire department employees are suffering accidents or injuries in the line of duty that render them literally unable to continue doing their job,” said Peter Warren, the director of research at the Empire Center, a conservative government watchdog group. “Neither is acceptable.”
Payments to those retired under accidental disability accounted for $963 million of its $1.5 billion in payouts. Robert MillerThe report reveals that 10,340 of the 17,288 retirees and beneficiaries currently receiving the pension qualified for the accident-in-service retirement status.
That allows them to claim 75% of their municipal salary, as opposed to the 50% for those who retire under normal eligibility rules.
That likely helped to inflate the average annual payout for an FDNY pensioner to an astounding $141,000 for the most recent 369 retirees, according to an analysis from the Empire Center.
The average annual payout for an FDNY pensioner increased to $141,000 for the most recent 369 retirees. Gregory P. MangoWarren estimates the questionable disability claims could easily cost the pension tens of millions of dollars annually.
All told, the Empire Center calculates that almost one-third of all FDNY retirees get payouts of more than $100,000 annually and 336 get payments worth $200,000 or more.
The data released by the pension board to the conservative think tank does not differentiate between standard and disability retirement.
There have been questions raised about the health and oversight of the fire pension for years.
An Empire Center report in 2017 revealed the fund had an estimated $9 billion in liabilities that were only 57% covered by its assets.
The Post exposed an FDNY retiree-turned-Long Island lawmaker in 2010 who competed in marathons after receiving a disability pension for asthma and diminished lung capacity.
The two main unions for the firefighters, the Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
