Probing Pensions: Disability Payouts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A Target 12 Investigators exclusive all this month we're "Probing Pensions." Now more than ever, it's critical to take a hard look at how your tax dollars are being spent. Pensions especially disability pensions, take a huge chunk of public money.

In Providence alone, payouts to retirees hurt "on-the-job" drain the pension system of $26 million a year.

Our investigation finds a number of disabled workers who are healthy enough to work elsewhere. But the way the rules are written, disabled workers in Providence can collect a tax-free pension, even if they're able to work in another field.

Our investigation points to a number of former Providence police officers. There is no question that being a Providence police officer is dangerous stuff and many injured officers just can't work ever again.

But how is it that some hurt on-the-job continued to work in similar fields? And one even captains a fishing boat.
            
On January 20th, 1992, Providence police officer Frederick Miller was seriously hurt in a cruiser accident. Three years later he hurt himself again, aggravating an already-injured right shoulder.

Unable to return to work, the Providence Retirement Board granted Miller a life-time disability pension. According to records we looked into at city hall, he now collects more than $3,000 a month. That's tax free, and includes health benefits at no cost.

Checking up on Miller, the Target 12 Investigators found him at the wheel of his fishing boat "The Miller Time." It's a summer business where Miller takes customers out for a day of fishing.

Our undercover cameras found him dockside in Point Judith hauling in striped bass, lugging gear, using his right shoulder to take rods off the boat and tossing them in his van.

The big question, of course, how can Miller be physically unable to wear a uniform, yet well enough to do this strenuous activity? We wanted to talk to him about it.

But shortly after our undercover video was taken, Miller packed up his boat and headed to his winter home in Florida. Determined to get his side of the story, we booked a flight and caught up with Miller outside a gas station near his Florida home.

Miller was not pleased we were questioning his pension; showing us his scar from surgery he says he received in 1995, after the second accident.

"When I went off the job, I couldn't reach over my head with my right arm," Miller said. "That was the problem; it was a limited range of motion. I could probably still be a plumber. I could probably still be a carpenter, providing I didn't have to reach over my head. But I couldn't be a policeman. You mean to tell me that I'm the one that's in question here? I mean that do you know how many guys there are that left Providence that went out on hypertension? Hypertension."

Miller is just one of 605 retirees collecting an accidental disability pension from the City of Providence. Target 12 also uncovered six Providence officers, collecting for an on-the-job injury, working as private security officers. We went undercover and found three injured officers working at Twin River Casino alone.

So why can't someone healthy enough to work in these jobs not have some position within the department? We wanted to talk to the police union, but representatives declined to be interviewed. We can tell you the police contract doesn't allow for light duty; either you can do the full job or none at all. There is a push underway at city hall already, to change how the system works.

John Igliozzi, from the Providence Retirement Board and City Council said, "The public doesn't feel confident in the system, it doesn't fell that their money is being spent wisely."

Igliozzi passed an ordinance last year. It requires all 600 collecting an accidental disability pension to get checked-out annually by a doctor.

"If it's no longer the same or worse, what happens now is their pension will automatically get converted back into a simple pension, "says Igliozzi.

Miller has yet to be re-certified. In fact, the city has yet to re-certify any disabled retirees. We're told they are still getting up-to-speed on the new ordinance.

As for Miller, he says his years on the force wore him down physically, and there isn't one doctor who would have let him wear his badge again.

"It probably wouldn't be as good a story if I was sitting drunk at the bar at the F.O.P. Because I've gone out and I try to do something with my life, I make a story," said Miller.

Other cities and towns are far more strict than Providence in how they award disability pensions and for those in the private sector, there are even tighter restrictions in how much and how long, you can collect.
      

Click here if you want more information on Social Security Disability Registration.

Next Thursday at 11:00pm, the Target 12 Investigators continue Probing Pensions looking at "double-dippers," people who collect a government pension and a government paycheck at the same time.