Page 1 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 

September 9, 2009 

The Honorable John L. Mica 

Ranking Member 

Committee on Transportation 

 and Infrastructure 

House of Representatives 

The Honorable Bill Shuster 

Ranking Member 

Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, 

 and Hazardous Materials 

Committee on Transportation 

 and Infrastructure 

House of Representatives 

Subject: Railroad Retirement Board: Review of Commuter Railroad 

Occupational Disability Claims Reveals Potential Program 

Vulnerabilities 

In fall 2008, a series of news reports revealed the relatively high number of 

workers at one commuter railroad—the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)—

who have applied for and been approved for occupational disability 

benefits by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB). According to RRB 

officials, a number of federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation, Social Security Administration, and the Department of 

Health and Human Services, have launched investigations in response to 

issues raised. In addition, the New York Attorney General’s office is 

conducting a criminal investigation. 

RRB is a federal agency responsible for administering the disability and 

retirement benefit programs for eligible railroad workers and their families 

under the Railroad Retirement Act. This includes providing occupational 

disability annuities for workers who have physical or mental impairments 

that prevent them from performing their specific railroad job, regardless of 

whether they can perform other work. For example, a railroad engineer 

who cannot frequently climb, bend, and reach, as required by the job, may 

be found occupationally disabled. A railroad worker is eligible to apply for 

an occupational disability at age 60 if he or she has 10 years of service, or 

 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 
 

at any age with at least 20 years of service.1 In fiscal year 2007, RRB paid 

more than $1.7 billion in occupational disability benefits to approximately 

64,000 workers. 

In this context, you asked us to study the experiences of LIRR workers 

who submitted applications for RRB occupational disability benefits. 

Specifically, we focused on the following objectives: (1) determine what is 

known about the extent to which LIRR workers have applied for and 

received occupational disability benefits, compared to workers at other 

commuter railroads, and (2) identify the steps RRB has taken to ensure 

that only eligible LIRR workers receive occupational disability benefits. 

We limited our review to the LIRR and the seven other commuter railroads 

covered by the Railroad Retirement Act.2

 Other railroads, such as freight 

railroads and Amtrak, were outside of our scope. We analyzed data from 

multiple RRB data systems to (1) determine the number of occupational 

disability benefits RRB awarded in calendar years 2004 through 2007, 

relative to employment, for LIRR and the other commuter railroads3

 and 

(2) determine application and approval rates for occupational disability 

benefits for workers at these railroads, for applications filed in fiscal year 

2007.4

 We determined that the data are sufficiently reliable for our 

purposes. We also conducted in-depth interviews with management 

officials and claims examiners from RRB’s headquarters in Chicago and its 

Westbury field office in Long Island, New York, as well as officials from 

LIRR, Metro-North Railroad, and the Metropolitan Transportation 

Authority Office of the Inspector General.5

 We also coordinated with 

 

1

Workers also must have a “current connection” with the railroad industry, which is 

generally met if the employee worked for a railroad in at least 12 of the last 30 consecutive 

months immediately preceding the start date for the disability annuity. 

2

The other commuter railroads included in this review are: Massachusetts Bay Commuter 

Railroad, Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, Northeast Illinois Commuter Railroad, 

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, Port Authority Trans-Hudson 

Corporation, and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. 

3

We used calendar years 2004 through 2007 because 2004 was the earliest year that RRB 

had complete data on commuter rail employees’ ages and years of service. Calendar year 

2007 is the most recent year for which RRB has complete railroad employment data. 

4

We chose fiscal year 2007 because it provided the most recent, complete data on the final 

outcomes of occupational disability claims. 

5

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the parent company of both the LIRR and 

Metro-North railroads. 

Page 2 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
 

RRB’s and the Social Security Administration’s Offices of the Inspector 

General. In addition, we reviewed a statistically random, projectable 

sample of occupational disability claims files for the LIRR and a similar 

commuter railroad, Metro-North, to provide context for our analyses.6

Finally, we reviewed RRB’s five-point plan, effective as of October 2008, 

that was designed to ensure that only those LIRR workers who are eligible 

for occupational disability benefits receive them. 

We conducted this performance audit from November 2008 to September 

2009 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing 

standards. These standards require that we plan and perform the audit to 

obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for 

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe the 

evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings based on 

our audit objectives. 

On June 30, 2009, we briefed your staff on the results of our study of LIRR 

workers’ claims for RRB occupational disability benefits. This report 

formally conveys the information provided during that briefing. In 

summary, our analysis identified some notable differences between claims 

filed by LIRR workers and those filed by other commuter rail workers that 

reveal potential program vulnerabilities, as illustrated by the following 

examples: 

• LIRR workers applied for occupational disability benefits at a rate 12 times 

higher than workers from the other commuter railroads in fiscal year 2007. 

However, RRB approved all commuter rail workers at the same rate—

nearly 100 percent. 

• Nearly all LIRR worker claims were for musculoskeletal impairments, 

such as lower back problems, compared to about half of workers from the 

other commuter railroads. 

• We observed in our review of claims from LIRR and Metro-North Railroad 

that most LIRR workers who filed claims provided RRB with medical 

evidence from one of three doctors. We did not observe these same 

patterns for Metro-North Railroad. In our prior work, we found that 

numerous claims with evidence from the same doctors can be an indicator 

 

6

We selected Metro-North because it operates in a similar geographic area and has a similar 

number of employees to LIRR. 

Page 3 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
 

of potential fraud or abuse.7 In addition, while RRB maintains data on 

claimants’ doctors in paper claims files, these data are not currently in a 

format that facilitates analysis or allows the agency to detect unusual 

patterns. 

We found that RRB has not analyzed occupational disability data by 

railroad or performed other analyses that could have enabled the agency 

to identify such unusual patterns in occupational disability applications 

from LIRR workers. RRB implemented a five-point plan, in October 2008, 

to enhance its oversight of LIRR claims, which includes ordering its own 

medical examinations for all LIRR claimants to supplement medical 

evidence provided by the claimants and conducting continuing disability 

reviews for all LIRR annuitants who were age 54.5 and younger as of 

October 21, 2008. While RRB officials stated that it is too early to assess 

the effect of the plan on disability decisions, the agency has approved 

nearly all of the occupational disability claims decided under the plan as of 

April 30, 2009. 

We provided a copy of this report to the Chairman, Labor Member, and 

Management Member of the Railroad Retirement Board for review and 

comment. We have reproduced the Chairman and the Labor Member’s 

comments on our draft report in enclosure II, and the Management 

Member’s comments in enclosure III. The board also provided one 

technical comment on our draft report, which we incorporated. 

Agency Comments 

and Our Evaluation 

Two of the board members were of the opinion that the high rate of 

occupational disability applications from workers at the Long Island Rail 

Road (LIRR) was an anomaly, but stated that the agency was taking steps 

to identify any other unusual patterns in occupational disability 

applications. They acknowledged that the agency does not currently have 

some of the data that may be necessary to detect such unusual patterns, 

but noted that a newly created staff position with responsibility for quality 

control oversight will have authority to develop new methods of data 

collection nationwide. 

The third board member expressed concern that there may be inherent 

systemic weaknesses in the occupational disability program that warrant 

 

7

GAO, Supplemental Security Income: Additional Actions Needed to Reduce Program 

Vulnerability to Fraud and Abuse GAO/HEHS-99-151 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 15, 1999). 

Page 4 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
 

further independent review of the agency’s program integrity and quality 

assurance controls. Although our work was limited to the commuter 

railroads, a nearly 100-percent approval rate in a federal disability program 

is troubling, and could indicate lax internal controls in RRB’s decisionmaking process, weaknesses in program design, or both. We have 

identified these and other areas in the occupational disability program that 

require further evaluation. 

As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce the contents of 

this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 30 days from the 

report date. At that time, we will send copies to the Chairman, Labor 

Member, and Management Member of the Railroad Retirement Board, 

relevant congressional committees, and other interested parties. In 

addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at 

http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact me 

at (202) 512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of 

Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page 

of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report are 

Daniel Bertoni 

listed in enclosure IV. 

irector, Education, Workforce, 

ecurity Issues 

D

 and Income S

Page 5 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure

Occupational D

Briefing Slides 

 I: Railroad Retirement Board 

isability Benefit Program 

Page 6 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 

Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

1

Railroad Retirement Board: Review of 

Commuter Railroad Occupational Disability 

Claims Reveals Potential Program 

Vulnerabilities

Staff Briefing for the Ranking Members of the

Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, 

and the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,

House of Representatives

June 2009
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

2

Introduction

• The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) provides an 

occupational disability benefit to workers who are unable to perform 

their specific railroad jobs. In fiscal year 2007, RRB paid more than $1.7 billion in occupational disability benefits to about 64,000

workers.1

• To be occupationally disabled, a worker must have a permanent 

physical or mental condition that prevents him or her from 

performing his or her railroad job. For example, a railroad engineer 

who cannot frequently climb, bend, and reach, as required by the

job, may be found occupationally disabled.

• In fall 2008, a series of news reports raised concerns about the

large number of workers from the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) 

who applied and were approved for occupational disability benefits 

by RRB.

1The average annual occupational disability benefit was $26,556 in fiscal year 2007.

Page 7 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

3

Introduction continued

• Concerns were also raised that:

• LIRR workers were claiming the same types of musculoskeletal 

impairments, such as herniated discs. 

• In addition to line workers with more physically demanding jobs,

white-collar LIRR management workers with potentially less 

physically demanding jobs also were accessing the program at 

high rates.

• According to RRB officials, a number of federal agencies, including 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Social Security Administration, 

and the Department of Health and Human Services, have launched 

investigations in response to these concerns. In addition, the New 

York Attorney General’s office is conducting a criminal 

investigation.

Page 8 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

4

Objectives

For this briefing, we focused on the following objectives:

1) Determine what is known about the extent to which LIRR workers 

have applied for and received occupational disability benefits, 

compared to workers at other commuter railroads.

2) Identify the steps RRB has taken to ensure that only eligible LIRR 

workers receive occupational disability benefits.

Page 9 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

5

Scope and Methodology

To answer our questions, we:

• Limited our review to LIRR and the seven other commuter railroads 

covered by the Railroad Retirement Act: Massachusetts Bay 

Commuter Railroad, Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, 

Northeast Illinois Commuter Railroad, Northern Indiana Commuter 

Transportation District, Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation, 

and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.2

Commuter rail workers made up about 10 percent of total rail 

employment in 2007.

• Analyzed agency data on the number of workers at LIRR and the 

seven other commuter railroads who met the age and service 

requirements for occupational disability and the number of 

occupational disability awards for calendar years 2004 through 

2007 for these railroads.3

2Amtrak is a commuter railroad, but we excluded it from our analysis because of its size (in 2007, it had three times as many employees as LIRR). It also 

operates and has employees across the nation, rather than in a specific region like the commuter rail agencies. Further, we excluded commuter employees of 

freight railroads because we had no way to differentiate them from freight workers. 

3We used calendar years 2004 through 2007 because 2004 was the earliest year that RRB had complete data on commuter rail employees’ ages and years of 

service. Calendar year 2007 is the most recent year for which the RRB has complete railroad employment data.

Page 10 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

6

Scope and Methodology continued

• Performed analyses using multiple RRB databases to determine 

application and approval rates for occupational disability benefits for 

workers at LIRR and the seven other commuter railroads, for 

applications filed in fiscal year 2007.4 

• Assessed the reliability of RRB data and determined that the data 

are sufficiently reliable for our purposes.

• Conducted in-depth interviews with management officials and 

claims examiners from the RRB’s headquarters in Chicago and its 

Westbury Field Office in Long Island, N.Y., as well as officials from 

LIRR, Metro-North Railroad, and the Metropolitan Transportation 

Authority Office of the Inspector General.5 We also coordinated with 

RRB’s and the Social Security Administration’s Offices of the 

Inspector General.

4We chose fiscal year 2007 because it provided the most recent, complete data on the final outcomes of occupational disability claims. 5The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the parent company of both the LIRR and Metro-North railroads.

Page 11 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

7

Scope and Methodology continued

• Reviewed a random, projectable sample of LIRR and Metro-North 

claims filed in fiscal year 2007 to provide context for our data

analyses. However, we did not assess the quality of medical 

evidence provided by doctors and specialists.6

• Reviewed RRB’s new five-point plan, designed to ensure that only 

those LIRR workers who are eligible for occupational disability 

benefits receive them.

6We selected Metro-North because it operates in a similar geographic area and has a similar number of employees.

Page 12 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

8

Scope and Methodology continued

• We conducted this performance audit from November 2008 to 

September 2009 in accordance with generally accepted 

government auditing standards. These standards require that we 

plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence 

to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions 

based on our audit objectives. We believe the evidence obtained 

provides a reasonable basis for our findings based on our audit 

objectives. 

Page 13 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

9

Summary of Results

• In fiscal year 2007, LIRR workers applied for occupational disability 

benefits at a rate 12 times higher than workers from the other 

commuter railroads. However, RRB approved all commuter rail 

workers at the same rate—nearly 100 percent. 

• RRB does not analyze occupational disability data by railroad or

perform other analyses that could enable them to identify unusual 

patterns in occupational disability applications, such as

• inconsistencies in application and approval rates, occupations, 

and types of impairments; and

• workers seeing the same doctors.

Page 14 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

10

Summary of Results continued

• RRB has implemented a five-point plan to enhance its oversight of 

LIRR claims. While RRB officials stated that it is too early to assess 

the effect of the plan on disability decisions, the agency has 

approved nearly all of the occupational disability applications 

decided under the plan, as of April 30, 2009. 

Page 15 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

11

RRB Occupational Disability Program

• RRB is a federal agency responsible for administering the disability, 

retirement, sickness, and unemployment benefit programs for 

eligible railroad workers and their families.7

• RRB provides occupational disability benefits to workers who it 

determines can no longer perform their specific railroad jobs due to 

their impairments. 

• A railroad worker is eligible to apply for an occupational disability 

benefit at age 60 with 10 years of service, or at any age with at 

least 20 years of service.8

7RRB’s disability programs fall under the Railroad Retirement Act.

8Workers also must have a “current connection” with the railroad industry, which is generally met if the employee worked for a railroad in at 

least 12 of the last 30 months immediately preceding the start date for the disability annuity. 

Background

Page 16 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

12

Social Security Disability Criteria

• If a worker is found unable to perform his or her specific railroad 

job, RRB also determines whether the worker meets the more 

stringent Social Security disability criteria—whether the worker is 

able to perform any work in the national economy.

• Workers found eligible under Social Security criteria may qualify for 

early Medicare and other financial benefits, in addition to their RRB 

occupational disability benefits.

• RRB makes most of these decisions, but the Social Security 

Administration (SSA) provides most of the funding to pay benefits 

when an occupationally disabled rail worker is also found to be 

disabled under SSA disability criteria.9

Background

9RRB and SSA exchange funds to ensure the Social Security Trust Funds are in the same position they would be if rail workers were covered 

by Social Security instead of their own system. RRB sends SSA tax revenues that SSA would otherwise collect from rail workers, and SSA 

provides RRB the funds that SSA would otherwise pay railroad workers in benefits. However, given declining rail employment, in fiscal year 2007, RRB received about $1.2 billion more than it sent to SSA for employee disability benefits.

Page 17 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

13

The RRB Occupational Disability Determination 

Process at a Glance

Background

Figure 1: The Occupational Disability Determination Process

Page 18 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

14

Rail Workers Can Receive Occupational Disability and 

Pension Benefits Concurrently

• Workers can receive occupational disability benefits from RRB, as 

well as non-RRB retirement benefits, such as pensions and health 

insurance, from their former railroad employer.

• LIRR workers hired before 1988 can retire and receive LIRR 

pension benefits as young as age 50 with 20 years of service 

(closed plan).10 Workers hired after that date can retire and receive 

LIRR pension benefits as young as age 55 with 30 years of service.

• Officials representing rail management and labor told us that while 

other railroads may offer pensions, the LIRR’s closed plan is more 

generous in terms of its age and service requirements. 

Background

10According to LIRR officials, fewer than 1,000 active LIRR employees were covered under the closed pension plan, as of January 2009.

Page 19 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

15

Objective One

Determine what is known about the extent to which 

LIRR workers have applied for and received 

occupational disability benefits, compared to 

workers at other commuter railroads.

Page 20 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

16

LIRR Workers Applied at a Rate 12 Times Higher Than 

Workers from the Other Commuter Railroads 

Combined

• In fiscal year 2007, LIRR workers filed applications at a rate 12 

times higher than all of the other seven commuter railroads 

combined, relative to the number of workers who met the minimum 

age and service requirements to apply for occupational disability 

benefits.

• In addition, our review of occupational disability award data from 

calendar years 2004 through 2007 showed that LIRR workers have 

consistently applied at this high rate.

Objective One

Page 21 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

17

LIRR Workers Applied at a Rate 12 Times Higher Than 

Workers from the Other Commuter Railroads 

Combined continued

Objective One

Figure 2: Occupational Disability Applications Filed in Fiscal Year 2007 from LIRR and the Other Commuter Railroads, 

Relative to the Number of Eligible Workers

Note: The circles in the graphic were drawn for illustrative purposes. As such, the circles do not accurately reflect the magnitude of the 

difference in the eligible populations, which is even greater than the graphic implies. In order to determine the rate at which LIRR workers 

applied for occupational disability benefits, compared to the application rate for the workers from the other commuter railroads combined, we 

divided the LIRR application rate (17.0%) by the rate for all other commuter railroads (1.4%). We found that LIRR workers applied at a rate 

12.1 times higher than the application rate for workers from all other commuter railroads combined. 

Page 22 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

18

RRB Approved Nearly All Commuter Rail Claimants 

for Occupational Disability Benefits, but Fewer LIRR 

Workers Met More Stringent Disability Standards

• RRB approved nearly 

all commuter rail 

workers who applied for 

occupational disability in 

fiscal year 2007, 

regardless of railroad.

• However, RRB found 

fewer LIRR workers met 

the more stringent 

Social Security disability 

criteria, compared to 

workers at the other 

commuter railroads.11

Objective One

11We calculated approval rates based on those claims where this determination had been made, as of May 2009.

Figure 3: RRB Approval Rates for Workers from LIRR, Compared to 

Those from the Other Commuter Railroads

Page 23 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

19

Nearly All LIRR Worker Claims Were for 

Musculoskeletal Impairments

Objective One

Figure 4: Distribution of Impairments Claimed by LIRR Workers in Fiscal Year 2007

Page 24 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

20

About Half of Worker Claims at the Other Commuter 

Railroads Were for Musculoskeletal Impairments

Objective One

Figure 5: Distribution of Impairments Claimed by Workers from the Other Commuter 

Railroads in Fiscal Year 2007

Note: Percentages in the figure do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Page 25 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

21

We Did Not Analyze Data on LIRR Claimants’ Jobs 

Due to Data Limitations

• While RRB collects data on the jobs workers claim on their 

applications, the data are not useful for analysis because job titles 

are not standardized.

• A single type of job can be listed many different ways, such as 

“ticket agent,” “ticket clerk,” and “ticket seller,” that may not be 

easily combined or compared without detailed knowledge of the 

jobs.

• As a result, neither we nor RRB could perform analyses to detect

unusual patterns in commuter rail workers’ applications, approval 

rates, and impairments by job.

Objective One

Page 26 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
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Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

22

LIRR Workers Frequently Saw the Same Doctors

• We observed in our review of claims from LIRR and Metro-North 

Railroad that most LIRR workers provided RRB with medical 

evidence from one of three doctors. Our prior work has found that 

numerous claims with evidence from the same doctors is an 

indicator of potential fraud or abuse.12

• We did not observe these same patterns for workers from MetroNorth Railroad.

• RRB does not maintain data for all railroads on claimants’ doctors 

in a format that would facilitate analysis and allow the agency to 

analyze and detect unusual patterns. Currently, RRB only has 

information on claimants’ doctors in their paper claim files.

Objective One

12GAO, Supplemental Security Income: Additional Actions Needed to Reduce Program Vulnerability to Fraud and Abuse, GAO/HEHS-99-151 

(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 15, 1999).

Page 27 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

23

LIRR Workers Applied for Occupational Disability at a 

Younger Age Than Workers From Other Commuter 

Railroads, and Most Were Receiving Pensions

• LIRR claimants were a median age of 51 in fiscal year 2007, 

compared to 54 for the other commuter railroads.

• RRB and rail management and labor officials told us that the LIRR’s

closed pension plan—which allows workers to retire at age 50 with 

20 years of service—was a factor in workers’ decisions to apply for 

occupational disability benefits because the benefits could 

supplement their retirement income.

• Of those who were asked when they applied for disability benefits, 

100 percent of LIRR workers reported they were receiving a nonRRB pension, compared to 64 percent of workers from the other 

commuter railroads.13

Objective One

13When workers apply for occupational disability benefits, RRB does not always ask whether they were receiving or expected to receive a 

railroad pension. The agency only asks this of applicants who have at least 25 years of service at 65 years old or 30 years of service at age 

60 and may qualify for an RRB supplemental annuity. The supplemental annuity currently provides a maximum of $43 a month to career 

railroad workers.

Page 28 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

24

RRB Has Taken Some Steps to Improve the Use of Its 

Occupational Disability Data, but Weaknesses Remain

• Until recently, RRB has not regularly analyzed occupational 

disability data by railroad or performed other analyses that could 

enable it to identify unusual patterns, such as inconsistencies in 

application and approval rates, occupations, and types of 

impairments.

• During the course of our review, RRB officials told us they are hiring 

a new staff member who will be responsible for analyzing data to

identify trends or anomalies in the occupational disability program. 

• However, this effort might be hampered because RRB does not 

currently maintain data, such as data on claimants’ doctors and 

useful data on the types of jobs rail workers held, in a format that 

can be easily analyzed.

Objective One

Page 29 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
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Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

25

Objective 2

Identify the steps RRB has taken to ensure that only 

eligible LIRR workers receive disability benefits.

Page 30 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

26

RRB Implemented a Five-Point Plan in October 2008 to 

Enhance Oversight of LIRR Claims

• RRB’s five-point plan for LIRR workers is a departure from how the agency handles claims for workers from all other railroads. 

1. RRB is ordering its own medical exams for all LIRR claimants to supplement medical evidence provided by claimants. 

• Through the end of April 2009—6 months after the plan was 

implemented—RRB had ordered 422 exams or tests for 104 

claimants.

• RRB recently began ordering MRIs and CAT scans—

diagnostic tools previously not available to claims examiners—

for certain LIRR claims, where X-rays ordered by RRB 

conflicted with MRI reports provided by workers’ doctors.14

Objective Two

14RRB procedures for occupational disability state that claims examiners cannot order these tests.

Page 31 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
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Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

27

RRB Implemented a Five-Point Plan in October 2008 to 

Enhance Oversight of LIRR Claims continued

2. RRB plans to conduct continuing disability reviews for all 362 

LIRR occupational disability annuitants who were age 54.5 and 

younger, as of October 21, 2008. 

• As of the end of April 2009, the agency had completed 74 continuing disability reviews. Disability benefits were continued in 73 of these cases, and in one case, RRB found 

the worker was deceased.

3. RRB has increased its oversight of its Westbury field office in Long 

Island through biweekly phone calls and quarterly visits. 

• The district manager has reported that the office is seeing fewer occupational disability applications from LIRR workers.

Objective Two

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Briefing Slides 

28

4. RRB is separately collecting and plans to analyze data only for 

LIRR claims to detect any unusual patterns, such as impairments 

and treating physicians that appear more frequently.

• RRB is still collecting data, and officials reported that it is too 

early to analyze it. 

• Although they are not currently analyzing these data across 

the program, RRB officials stated that they may expand these 

analyses to other railroads, as necessary.

Objective Two

RRB Implemented a Five-Point Plan in October 2008 to 

Enhance Oversight of LIRR Claims continued

Page 33 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

29

5. RRB has begun collecting data on the extent to which LIRR 

management employees are accessing the program.15

• RRB officials told us they could not use their existing 

occupational data to determine how many LIRR managers 

had applied, so they collected and analyzed data from LIRR 

on all managers who retired or left the railroad after January 

2000.

• Of the 401 managers who retired or left the railroad during this

period, 207 were receiving occupational disability benefits, as 

of the end of September 2008. An additional 9 had 

applications pending.

Objective Two

RRB Implemented a Five-Point Plan in October 2008 to 

Enhance Oversight of LIRR Claims continued

15While management workers are eligible to apply for occupational disability in the same way that other workers are eligible to apply, 

concerns were raised in the news reports about the high rate at which LIRR management workers with less physically demanding jobs 

were accessing the occupational disability program, in comparison to line workers with more physically demanding jobs. RRB officials told 

us they are collecting these data in response to these concerns.

Page 34 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

30

Almost All LIRR Occupational Disability Applications 

Decided under the Five-Point Plan Have Been 

Approved

As of the end of April 2009:

• RRB had decided 66 LIRR workers’ occupational disability claims.

Sixty-four were approved, and two were denied. Another claim was 

withdrawn by the claimant.

• RRB reports that implementing the five-point plan has cost about 

$248,000. Most of these costs are related to staff time for claims 

examiners, which have already been budgeted for in RRB’s

disability program operations. 

Objective Two

Page 35 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure I: Railroad Retirement Board 

Occupational Disability Benefit Program 

Briefing Slides 

31

RRB Has Taken Additional Steps to Oversee Its 

Occupational Disability Program

• As mentioned previously, RRB recently approved hiring a new staff 

member, who will report to the Director of Assessment and 

Training, to analyze occupational disability program data.

• RRB also is undergoing a reorganization to separate its sickness

and unemployment programs from its disability programs, in order

to better monitor the occupational disability program.

Objective Two

Page 36 GAO-09-821R Railroad Retirement Board 
Enclosure II: Comments from the U.S. 

Railroad Retirement Board Chairman and Enclosure II: Comments from the U.S. Labor Member 

Railroad Retirement Board Chairman and 

Labor Member 

Page 37 GAO-09-821R Error! Reference source not found.
Enclosure II: Comments from the U.S. 

Railroad Retirement Board Chairman and 

Labor Member 

Page 38 GAO-09-821R Error! Reference source not found.
Enclosure II: Comments from the U.S. 

Railroad Retirement Board Chairman and 

Labor Member 

Page 39 GAO-09-821R Error! Reference source not found.
Enclosure III: Comments from the U.S. 

Railroad Retirement Board Management Enclosure III: Comments from the U.S. Member 

Railroad Retirement Board Management 

Member 

Page 40 GAO-09-821R Error! Reference source not found.
Enclosure IV: GAO Contact and Staff Enclosure IV: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 

Acknowledgments 

Daniel Bertoni, (202) 512-7215 or bertonid@gao.gov

Jeremy Cox (Assistant Director) and Arthur T. Merriam Jr. (Analyst-inCharge) managed all aspects of the assignment. Rachael Valliere, Martin 

Scire, and Jillian Fasching made significant contributions to this report, in 

all aspects of the work. In addition, Gregory Wilmoth, Gloria 

Hernandezsaunders, and Wilfred Holloway provided technical support; 

Jessica Botsford provided legal support; and Susan Aschoff assisted with 

the development of the message and report.

Page 41 GAO-09-821R Error! Reference source not found.

GAO Contact 

Staff 

Acknowledgments 

(130905) 
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