New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog : New Jersey Public Safety Employee Lawyer & Attorney : Pellettieri, Rabstein & Altman Law Firm : Workers Compensation, Discipline Representation for Police & Firefighters : New Jersey

Following up on our previous entry, this article will help our readers understand the criteria that must be met in order for a public employee to qualify for an ordinary or accidental disability pension within one of the following State pension systems, the Public Employees Retirement System, the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund, the State Police Retirement System, and the Judicial Retirement System. While these pension plans are similar in defined benefits and criteria for eligibility, each has their own specific nuances that are particular to the membership they serve. 

Accidental v. Ordinary Disability Benefits

Public Employees Retirement System and Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund

In accordance with the Public Employees Retirement System (“PERS”) and Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund (“TPAF”) handbooks, in order to qualify for an ordinary disability retirement, an employee must:

·         Have an active pension account;

·         Have 10 or more years of New Jersey service credit;

·         Be considered totally and permanently disabled; and

·         Submit medical reports certifying the disability.

In order to qualify for an accidental disability retirement, a member must:

·         Be an active member of PERS or TPAF on the date of the “traumatic event”;

·         Be considered totally and permanently disabled as a result of a “traumatic event” that happened during and as a direct result of carrying out the member’s regular or assigned job duties;

·         File an application for disability retirement within five (5) years of the date of the “traumatic event”; and

·         Be examined by physicians selected by the retirement system.

If an employee claiming membership to either one of these retirement funds qualified for accidental disability, his/her annual retirement allowance will be 72.7% of their salary at the time of the “traumatic event.”

Should the public employee be receiving periodic workers’ compensation benefits, the accidental disability retirement benefits will be reduced dollar for dollar by the periodic benefits paid after the retirement date. However, the retirement benefit is not reduced by any Social Security or private insurance benefits that may be payable.

The New Jersey Division of Pensions and Benefits reports accidental disability retirement benefits as exempt from federal income tax. The benefits are also

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Last week we spoke about medical benefits in the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation System. In this entry we will give a brief overview regarding total permanent disability benefits, and partial total disability benefits.

The third type of benefit that an injured worker is entitled to receive under the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act is commonly referred to as total permanent disability benefits and/or partial total disability benefits. Total permanent disability benefits are reserved for the injured worker that has been declared permanently disabled and is unable to return to work. Partial total disability benefits are benefits that are paid for injuries that have not rendered the employee totally disabled.

Permanent and partial total disability benefits are often a one-time lump sum payment, or bi-weekly payments that an injured employee will receive at the end of his or her workers’ compensation case. The amount of money that the injured employee will receive is based upon a statutory schedule established by The New Jersey State Legislature and is particular to the severity of the injury, and the injury to the particular body part.

The benefits associated with permanent and partial total disability are based on a weekly compensation system. The seriousness of the disability is taken into consideration in awarding permanent and partial total disability benefits. The more serious the injury, the greater the award an injured worker can expect to receive. The benefits paid as a result of receiving permanent and partial total disability benefits are not subject to taxation by either the State or Federal Government. Furthermore, attorney’s fees associated for representation in a New Jersey workers’ compensation case are deducted from an award of permanent and partial total disability benefits. Additionally, certain expenses that an attorney expends in representing an injured worker are also deducted from the award of permanent and partial total disability benefits. 

It is important to remember that if a public safety officer is declared totally disabled and is going to collect an ordinary disability pension, there will be a monetary offset for the pension award in regard to the money received for total and/or partial disability benefits under the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation System. Furthermore, if the public safety officer is awarded accidental disability benefits, the workers’ compensation permanent and/or partial disability award will be negated in its entirety.

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In the case of Christopher v. Board of Trustees of the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, 33-2-0847, the appellant, a corrections officer, argued to the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, that he should receive accidental disability benefits suffered from a combined psychological injury (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) that resulted from work at the world trade center post 9-11, and an assault by an inmate. Furthermore, the appellant also argued that due to the fact that his case was originally decided under the “old” evaluative standard to assess accidental disability, or the Kane [1], standard, he should be entitled to a new hearing due to the change in law that occurred in the summer of 2007 when the Richardson[2] decision was handed down by the New Jersey Supreme Court. 

The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division heard Christopher’s argument and opined that a change in the state of the law is not ordinarily considered an adequate reason for re-opening cases in which the final administrative decision was rendered and the original time to appeal the final administrative action has expired. The bottom line is that if a member of the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System had an application for accidental disability benefits denied under the old Kane line of reasoning, and a timely appeal was not filed following the Board of Trustees Final Administrative Action, you cannot now successfully file an appeal based solely on a change in the law.  

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During the course of a public safety officer’s career, many uniformed employees become injured and disabled on the job. If a public safety officer is unable to continue his or her employment as a result of the injury, they are often left with no choice but to medically retire. The Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (PFRS), is the New Jersey public employee retirement system that services the vast majority of public safety officers in the state of New Jersey. PFRS offers two disability retirement pensions that have diverse entitlements based primarily on how the accident occurred that lead to the disabling injury. It is the Board of Trustees for PFRS that makes the determination of what type of disability pension an individual will qualify to receive. In this post, I will talk briefly about the two types of disability pensions and the benefits associated with each. In my next post, I will discuss the current state of the law as it pertains to accidental versus ordinary disability, and how the applicable pension standards are being interpreted by the Board of Trustees for PFRS and the New Jersey Courts.    

ORDINARY DISABILITY

To qualify for Ordinary Disability retirement benefits a public safety officer must:

• be a member in service at the time the application is filed with the Division of Pensions and Benefits;
• have 4 or more years of New Jersey service credit in the pension system (the purchase of out-of-state, military, and U.S. government civilian service cannot be used to attain the 4 years); and
• be considered totally and permanently disabled (the member must prove that he or she is physically or mentally incapacitated from performing the normal or assigned job duties with no possibility for significant improvement).

Ordinary Disability Retirement benefits are not reduced by any Social Security or private insurance benefits that may be payable.   However, any Workers' Compensation award receive from the accident that may have caused the disability may be reduced, or receive a “setoff”.

Ordinary Disability retirement benefits are subject to federal tax to the same extent as other pensions.

ACCIDENTAL DISABILITY

To qualify for Accidental Disability retirement benefit,s a public safety officer must:

• be a member in service at the time the application is filed with the Division of Pensions and Benefits;
• be an active member of PFRS on the date the “traumatic event” occurred that caused the injury;
• be considered totally and permanently disabled as a direct result of a” traumatic event” that happened during and as a direct result of carrying out his or her regular or assigned job duties;
• file an application within five years of the date of the traumatic event; and
• be examined by physicians selected by PFRS. Said physicians must render an opinion that the member is totally and permanently disabled as a result of the “traumatic event”.

The definition of a "Traumatic Event" has been the subject of great debate and disagreement by the New Jersey courts. This definition will be discussed in more detail in my next post.

If a public safety officer qualifies for an Accidental Disability Retirement pension, the annual benefit will be 2/3 of the annual compensation on which pension contributions were being made at the time of retirement or the date of the traumatic event, whichever provides the higher benefit.

If the Public Safety Officer is receiving periodic Workers' Compensation benefits, the Accidental Disability retirement benefits will be reduced dollar for dollar by the periodic benefits paid after the retirement date. The retirement benefit is not reduced by any Social Security or private insurance benefits that may be payable.

The Division of Pensions and Benefits reports Accidental Disability retirement benefits as exempt from federal income tax; and benefits are not subject to New Jersey State income tax until the age 65.

With the high occurrence of injury on the job, public safety officers and union leadership must make themselves familiar with the different retirement benefits in order to give proper guidance to their membership. It is often disability retirement benefits that injured public safety officers rely on to support their family members after they can no longer protect and serve.

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