Tier 6 - The New 3/4 Accident Disability Benefits - What Will Members Pay?

On June 6, 2016 the mayor announced an agreement with the unions representing the Uniform Forces of Fire, Sanitation, and Corrections granting their Tier 6 members a ¾ accident disability benefits under Tier 6.

The Uniform Fire Force

The benefit for the Uniform Fire Force needed subsequent state legislation, Chapter 298 of the Laws of 2016. It will cost eligible firefighters 2% of payroll every year to start. As of 9/18/2019 the actuary will review the cost of the program and I am quite certain the cost will rise to 5%. Luckily for firefighters the cost is capped at 5%.

Chapter 298 also created a new agency to administer the Fire pension fund staffed with personnel from the internal pension division within the Fire Department.

When members are paying 5% per year for the benefit, I guarantee you that the number of accident disability awards at the FDNY will greatly increase from the current level of 57% of retirees (9,842 out of 17,261 as of FY-2015). God help the funding level at the FDNY-PF.

The Uniform Sanitation and Correction Forces

In contrast to Fire, the benefits for the Uniform Sanitation and Correction Forces utilized Article 25 of Tier 6 to authorize the new benefit. See the recap below. In this structure there is no cap on the costs that the eligible members will have to pay for the new accident disability benefit.

In 2012, as part of the Tier 6 legislation, the legislature added three new parts to the RSSL, Articles 23, 24, and 25. Articles 23 & 24 apply to the NYSLERS. Article 25 applies to NYCERS, NYCTRS, and BERS.

The idea behind these new articles is to provide the state and the city with the right to grant pension benefits to bargaining units with the provision that the members getting the new benefits would pay for the full cost of the granted benefits.

At first look this might seem like a reasonable idea. It has, however, several potential problems.

Initially, the definition of the new pension benefit is not contained in state statute. I would assume the mayor will issue an executive order legally describing the benefit and giving public notice since there will inevitably be litigation arising from these benefits. (As of today there are no publicly available executive orders granting the new benefits.) In 2016, the Mayor issued executive orders under Article 25 for the Uniform Sanitation and Correction Forces.

Secondly it appears that only the state legislation can terminate these benefits. Without legislation the parties are locked into these benefit/funding arrangements, no matter how onerous.

Thirdly, the retirement system involved, in this case NYCERS, will have to set a contribution rate and a control system to insure that the members are paying for the cost of the benefit. This is something very easy to say but very hard to do.

To properly do this, NYCERS will have to carefully track each one of these new accident disability awards correctly determining the extra cost for each benefit and offsetting the reserve that has been built to cover this cost. The actuary will have to be very careful to correctly cost these benefits because the city can not pay for any of this added cost. The interest rate assumption and mortality tables will be crucial. You know there will be shortfalls all the time.

The Added Cost of the New Benefit

Let me give you an idea how much this benefit will cost. A current Tier 6 Sanitation member is eligible for a 50% accident disability benefit equal to 50% of his/her five year average earnings (FAS) reduced by 50% of his Social Security disability benefit. This is a rough description. The SS offset can get very convoluted. For the sake of simplicity and being conservative, let us assume that the final benefit after the offset would be 45% of the member’s FAS.

The new benefit will be 75% with no SS offset. That is a 30% increase in the lifetime benefit. For example, a member with a $70,000 FAS who is disabled at age 38 will see an annual increase of $21,000 in his accident disability benefit. The IRS 4% annuity factor at 38 is 19.1665. Together they create present value of $402,496. For this example let us assume 25 accident disability awards per year. This gives you an annual cost for the new benefit of $10,062,400.

There are approximately 7,000 Sanitation workers of which about 1,750 are in Tier 6 right now. That number grows by 350 per year. NYCERS must give the existing 1,750 members the option to elect this benefit. All new Tier 6 members will be forced to pay for the benefit. The cost divided into 2,100 workers is $4,830 per year. That is 6.9% of a $70,000 salary.

I suspect you already can see the tidal wave coming.

What NYCERS Is Charging

NYCERS has costed this benefit out at 1.3% of payroll for Sanitation and .8% for Corrections and stated that they will review the rate on 6/30/2019. It would be interesting to see the calculations that support these percentages. But I guess that would be too much information for the public to handle. Yeah, right.

The Sanitation rate will fund a benefit with an annual value of $1,911,000 (2,100*.013*$70,000)

• 2,100 workers
• 1.3% payroll deduction
• FAS: annual salary $70,000

This funds 4.75 accident disability pensions per year ($1,911,200/$402,496). What does NYCERS do if they have 10 accident disability pensions a year? What will NYCERS do on 6/30/2019 if they 15 or 20 unfunded accident disabilities? That could be a $8M deficit.

I suspect that there are approximately 350 Sanitation workers retiring each year. If they are a Tier 6 members, they now have an intense motivation to file for an accident disability pension. The moral hazard is very large.

I spent 20 years sitting at NYCERS Board meetings for disability benefits. The idea that there will only be 2.3 accident disability awards per year per 1,000 Tier 6 Sanitation workers is naïve.

If 7,000 Sanitation workers find themselves paying a substantial percentage of payroll for a ¾ accident disability benefit, they are going to file for it.

I won’t be 57% but NYCERS should be ready for at least 33%. They will work until they are injured. Members know how to maximize their pensions.

When a member pays for a benefit, he or she is going to get it, hell or high water. This will get very ugly. You can imagine if they have to pay 15% every year for this benefit.

Everyone should read about the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Fund to see how bad things can get when people are irresponsible about running a pension fund.

Recap of Article 25 of the NYS RSSL.

- The city of New York may elect to provide its employees benefit enhancements

- Such election may be made at the sole discretion of the mayor of the city of New York to the retirement systems upon receipt of a request from the collective bargaining organization,recognized or certified to represent such eligible employees, for such benefits.

- Upon election by the city of New York, the retirement system shall require additional member contributions to be paid by all eligible employees.

- The additional member contributions to be paid by eligible employees shall be of a level so that no additional contributions shall be paid by the city of New York to cover the cost of such additional benefits.

Tier 6 - Disability Picture for NYC Police, Fire, Corrections, Sanitation, and Detective Investigators Members

Background

As of July 1, 2009 all new NYC police officers and fire fighters were covered by the Tier-3 pension benefit structure.

As of April 1, 2012 all new NYC police officers, fire fighters, correction officers, sanitation workers, and DA detective investigators are covered by the new Tier-6 pension benefit structure.

Tier 6 is an effort at pension benefit reform within New York State. It definitely cuts benefits. It is very expansive but I want to focus on one particular area, disability benefits for these Tier-6 workers.

With respect to these Tier 6 members, the new disability benefits are the old Tier 3 benefits put in place back in 1976, 37 years ago. The one difference is that these benefits are now based on compensation base equal to a five year average earnings as opposed to the old three year average.

The relevant sections of law in Tier 6/Tier 3 with respect to disability benefits are Sections 506 (Ordinary Disability) and 507 (Accident Disability) of the N.Y.S. Retirement &Social Security Law (RSSL).

As of 2009, only the NY Police Pension Fund (NYPPF) and the FDNY Pension Fund (FDNYPF) were involved with the Tier 3 throwback.

As of 2012, Tier 6/Tier 3 involves three pension systems, NYPPF, FDNYPF, and NYCERS. These three systems will have to resurrect the old Tier-3 procedures from the 1976 to 1983 time period. Of the three systems, only NYCERS administered Tier-3 benefits during that time. In 1976, the benefit structure for both NYPPF and FDNYPF remained in Tier 2.

In 1983, Tier 4 superseded Tier 3 state wide. One of the big reasons for the change over to Tier 4 was the administrative problems inherent in Tier 3, especially the Social Security coordination and its tie-in to disability determinations.

These lower Tier 6 disability benefit levels will reduce the number of members retiring for disability. The VSF benefit, for police, fire, and corrections, is only available to service retirees. This benefit along with the long term earnings limitations will push many members to continue working until their 22nd year even when they may qualify for a disability benefit. Members who are profoundly disabled, however, will have no choice but apply for whatever disability benefit they qualify for.

The FDNY will have a special management problem supervising two groups of employees, one with an accident disability benefit = 45% (new fire fighters) and another with a line of duty disability benefit = 75% for all EMS workers, even Tier 6 ones. This makes one think that there will definitely be future changes to this part of Tier 6.

Ordinary Disability Benefits (S.506)

The new Tier 6 ordinary disability benefit is equal to

1. The greater of 33&1/3% of the five year average FAS or 2% times years of service up to 30 years
2. Minus 50% of the primary SS disability benefit or at age 62, 50% of the primary SS retirement benefit (if ineligible for SS disability)
3. Minus 100% of any Workers Compensation (WC) payable
4. Plus full immediate escalation.

To be eligible the member must in active service and have at least 5 years of credited service. Continuous employment in active public service immediately prior to the date of membership in the appropriate retirement system shall also count towards the 5 year requirement. There is no age requirement for the ordinary disability benefit.

The member must be determined to by disabled by the Social Security Administration. If you are older than 65 or do not have a enough quarters to be eligible for SS disability, then the approppriate retirement system Medical Board will make the disability determination. The cause of the disability is not pertinent to granting the benefit.

Retirees receiving ordinary disability benefits are subject to post retirement income limitations. These limitations are the same as apply to the accident disability benefit. See below.

Note: Workers Compensation

NYC police officers, fire fighters, and sanitation workers are not covered by Workers Compensation. Therefore, there is no WC offset for their disability benefits.

Correction officers and DA detective investigations are, however, covered by the city's WC structure. This means there will be WC offsets to their disability benefits, if the member receives any WC payments.

It may be prudent for these members not to claim WC payments since the NYCERS benefit might be reduced to zero by the offset. This would put their city health insurance as retirees at risk. However the WC payments might be greater than the NYCERS benefit with or without the SS offset. The member needs to do some arithmetic to properly balance their benefit structure. I'm sure the relevant unions will provide advice.

A WC offset for an ordinary disability benefit is unusual and raises the issue of whether this benefit is exempt from federal income tax in the same way that accident disability benefits are. The NYC Law Department will have to resolve this issue.

Accident Disability Benefits (S.507)

The Tier-6 benefit is equal to

1. 50% of the five year average FAS
2. Minus 50% of the primary SS disability benefit or at age 62, 50% of the primary SS retirement benefit (if ineligible for SS disability)
3. Minus 100% of any Workers Compensation payable.
4. Plus immediate full escalation. See the escalation section below.

To be eligible the member must in active service. There is no two year filing limitation that existed in Tier-2. There is no service or age requirement for the accident disability benefit. It appears to me that police officers and fire fighters with 22 or more years of service are not eligible while NYCERS members are free of that limitation. This issue will not arise for many years and probably will be changed sometime in the future.

The member must be determined to by disabled either by the Social Security Administration or the appropriate pension Medical Board. In either case, the Medical Board must make a recommendation on whether the associated incident on the job caused the disability and the incident was an accident as per retirement system's legal definition of an accident. These causation and accident determinations are the same as in Tier-2.

The appropriate Board of Trustees makes the final determination on causation and accident. The final disability decision, however, rests with the Social Security Administration or the retirement system's Medical Board.

Members must waive any right to any statutory presumption (i.e. heart bill or lung bill) relating to the cause of the disability or eligibility for disability benefits. This does not apply to World Trade Center presumptions.

Retirees receiving accident disability benefits are subject to post retirement income limitations. See below.

Limitations on Income after Disability Retirement (S.507.d)

There are significant long term income limitations for disability retirees, both for accident and ordinary disability. I have included the exact wording from the statute (S.507.d) below because of the harshness of the restriction. If the retiree loses his/her SS disability benefit or engages in employment or business activity that would make him/her ineligible for SS disability benefits, then his/her retirement system disability benefits cease. This is not just a suspension. The only reprieve is being placed on a preferred eligible list.

S.507.d.

If a member shall cease to be eligible for primary social security benefits before attaining age sixty-five, or, if receipt of social security benefits is not a condition for disability benefits hereunder, shall engage in such employment or business activity as would render such member ineligible for social security disability benefits (had he or she otherwise been eligible), benefits hereunder shall cease.

Provided, however, if such member is otherwise eligible, the state civil service department or appropriate municipal commission shall place the name of such person, as a preferred eligible, on the appropriate eligible lists prepared by it for positions for which such person is stated to be qualified in a salary grade not exceeding that from which such person retired.

In such event, disability benefits shall be continued for such member until such member first shall be offered a position in public service at such salary grade.

Escalation (S.510)

Escalation is designed to provide some protection from the negative effects of inflation over time. A Tier-6 member who retires for either disability benefit is eligible every April 1 for a percentage increase in his/her benefit based on the lesser of 3% or the consumer price index (all items- US city averages as per US Bureau of Labor Statistics) as of the previous December 31.

In the event of a decrease in the CPI, the benefit is decreased by the lesser of 3% or the CPI. The benefit will not decrease below the original benefit.

The CPI changes are cumulative and are brought forward each year. So in effect, there are two running escalation indexes, the all 3% index and the all CPI index.

Escalation becomes payable: 1) For eligible service or vested benefits on April 1 following the 25th anniversary date. The first year is prorated on monthly basis. 2) For accident and ordinary disability and death benefits on April 1st following the date the benefits start. Again the first year is prorated.

Social Security Offset (S.511)

Calculating this offset can get very complicated. But roughly speaking the amount is computed at the time that the member retires from the appropriate retirement system and not at the member’s 62nd birthdate. It does not include any private sector income in computing the Social Security benefit. Only wages from employers who participate in NYS public pension plans are used. All other wages are set to zero. The offset will not include any increases to the Social Security benefit which occur after the member's retirement date. The complexity of this offset is one of the prime reasons that New York State moved to Tier 4 (the SS offset was dropped completely along with automatic escalation) in 1983.

Tier 6 - Pension Math - New Trustees

Just a little math on Cuomo's "pension reform" for government workers.

If a person starts working at age 21 for the city under Tier 6 with a salary of $25,000 and retires at age 65 with a final salary that went up 2.5% per year, his/her pension would be $48,881 after 44 years of service with the city.

If NYCERS earns an annual rate of return of 7% on its investments and uses a 7% annuity factor, this benefit will only cost the city .4% of payroll, $7,855, over the 44 years. That is an average of $179 a year. The employee will have contributed $90,975 over the 44 years.

Maybe with this radical cost shift the workers should have the majority vote on the city pension boards. It might be interesting if the members, retirees, and beneficiaries voted in an open election for the majority of the trustees.

Note:

In contrast to the 7% assumption, if NYCERS only earns 5% on its investments and uses a 5% annuity factor, the city's cost for the $48,881 benefit rises drastically to 4.83% of payroll, $94,852, over 44 years. This amount is similar to what the employee must contribute.

The increase in cost for the city makes it every clear how important it is to the city and the employee that the pension funds are careful about their investment decisions. To use a baseball expression, this is all about making contact, not hitting the ball out of the park.