By THOMAS TRACY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | October 16, 2021
Something seemed wrong to EMS Lt. Edith Torres’ parents about the size of the death benefit they received after she succumbed to 9/11 illness — it was a great deal less than they’d been told to expect.
Now the EMS workers’ union wonders if other families have also been drastically short-changed by city retirement system bean counters.
“It just stunned all of us,” said Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507. “How is that possible that such a big organization can be shortchanging people? Who knows how many others there are that we just don’t know about?”
Barzilay said the apparent screw-up is just one example of how NYCERS keeps retiring city employees in limbo.
EMS retirees currently have to wait up to eight months to get approval for their basic pensions, which amount to about $25,000 a year, the union leader said.“It’s impossible to get anyone on the phones these days because of the remote working (during COVID),” Barzilay said.
“There has got to be some sort of way for people to know what is happening with their livelihood. Our members are already struggling and the bureaucracy and the red tape they haveto go through just makes it worse.”
Jose and Edith Torres have received only about a third of the money they’re due from the death of their daughter, a 23-year FDNY EMS veteran who raced to the World Trade Center on her day off to help after terrorists slammed two jumbo jets into the Twin Towers, say officials of Local 2507, which represents uniformed EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors.
In October 2016, Torres, 46, was diagnosed with a fast-spreading form of cervical cancer tied to her time at Ground Zero. She died four months later.
As she fought her illness, Torres told her parents that they were the beneficiaries her accidental death benefit, her father Jose Torres told the Daily News.
“She wanted to leave the money to her niece and nephew, but she didn’t have time to put them as beneficiaries,” said Jose Torres, 75. “She asked us to send it along to them because she was concerned with their education.”
When their daughter died, Torres and his wife submitted a claim with the New York City Employees’ Retirement System — known by the acronym NYCERS — and received a lump sum check of around $155,000.
“I thought they were correct about it, but I had my doubts,” Torres said.
The issue weighed on his mind for years.
In July, when the city renamed a street in his daughter’s honor in Astoria, Queens, Torres brought the matter to the attention of Gary Smiley, a former paramedic who works with Local 2507.
Smiley quickly learned that the math NYCERS bean counters used to calculate the family’s benefit was way off. “The city owed them well over $100,000 more,” he said.
The city also miscalculated the paramedic’s disability pension her family received, Smiley learned. Instead of getting about $70,000 a year in monthly payments, they were receiving about $27,000, Smiley said.
Pensions and death benefits are usually based on the best three yearly salaries of the deceased’s last five years of employment, said Smiley, who speculated that NYCERS only reviewed how much Torres earned in her last year.
Smiley, a 9/11 first responder who is battling NYCERS over his own disability pension after coming down with chronic health problems from his time at Ground Zero, took the matter to NYCERS officials.
“We asked them to look into this, and they said ‘I think we made a mistake,’” he said.
“It just stunned all of us,” said Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507. “How is that possible that such a big organization can be shortchanging people? Who knows how many others there are that we just don’t know about?”
Exactly how much more the Torres family gets will be determined by NYCERS staff. NYCERS spokeswoman Rachel Assisi said the agency is taking a new look at Torres’ benefit allotment.
“NYCERS administers all benefits pursuant to all applicable laws and regulations,” Assisi said. “Eligibility and computation of benefits is solely determined by statute.”
“NYCERS is such a secretive organization, especially when it comes to beneficiaries,” Smiley said. He suspects NYCERS might have made payouts to dozens more families who have no idea they were being shortchanged.
Barzilay said the apparent screw-up is just one example of how NYCERS keeps retiring city employees in limbo.
EMS retirees currently have to wait up to eight months to get approval for their basic pensions, which amount to about $25,000 a year, the union leader said.
“It’s impossible to get anyone on the phones these days because of the the remote working (during COVID),” Barzilay said.
“There has got to be some sort of way for people to know what is happening with their livelihood. Our members are already struggling and the bureaucracy and the red tape they have to go through just makes it worse.”
Retirees seeking disability pensions — which would give them 75% of their salary tax-free — are treated the worst by NYCERS, said Smiley.
He noted that NYCERS has denied 70% of disability pension claims made by city employees with diagnosed World Trade Center illnesses.
“Their entire emphasis is to keep people from getting their pensions, especially when it comes to line-of-duty injuries and World Trade Center illnesses.” he said.
Jose Torres said he and his wife, who retired 13 years ago from a transportation business they ran, didn’t need the payout, but plenty of other beneficiaries do.
“We’re OK, but a lot of families out there are not,” he said. “There are a lot of families and have mortgages and small children to care for. If NYCERS is doing this to them, it’s extremely unfair.”