Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program
Performance Measurement Would Strengthen Accountability and Enhance Awareness among Potential Claimants Gao ID: GAO-10-5 October 29, 2009In 1976, Congress established the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program, which is administered by the Department of Justice (Justice) and provides lump-sum payments to eligible public safety officers and their survivors after a line-of-duty death or permanent and total disability. The program also provides educational benefits to an eligible officer's spouse and children. GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which claimants receive PSOB program benefits and how long the claims process takes, (2) any issues raised by state and local agencies and others who assist claimants in seeking benefits, and (3) the extent to which the PSOB program follows recognized government standards and guidelines for effective program management. To address these objectives, we reviewed PSOB claims that were opened during fiscal years 2006 to 2008 for all three types of claims, reviewed relevant agency documents, and interviewed PSOB program officials, representatives of advocacy organizations, and state and local officials in five selected states.
GAO found that all education claims and over three-quarters of death claims opened in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were closed and approved as of April 2009, while only about 31 percent of disability claims initiated during that period had determinations. The majority of disability claims remained pending because they took significantly longer to process than other claims--while education and death claims were generally processed in under a year, disability claims took between 17 and 26 months. GAO was unable to pinpoint which steps of the claims process were most time-consuming because claims files that GAO reviewed did not consistently document the date when claims passed through each step of the process. State and local officials GAO interviewed were generally concerned about their lack of awareness of certain PSOB program benefits, challenges with establishing eligibility, and the perceived long wait time for benefits. Specifically, officials were generally more aware of death than disability and education benefits. Officials also stated that submitting all the necessary paperwork to prove eligibility was difficult and time-consuming due, in part, to how long it took to obtain necessary documents from other organizations. Officials most frequently expressed concern about perceived long wait times for receiving benefits and also reported difficulties obtaining information about claims status. While it is taking steps to improve, the PSOB program does not follow government guidelines for performance monitoring. Specifically, according to Justice officials, the PSOB program has not set strategic goals and measures, monitored performance, or reported results because it is a payment program, and its budget is largely mandatory. However, other federal programs that provide benefits after work-related injury and illness have established performance measures, such as ones for claims-processing timeliness, and report their results publicly. Also, while the PSOB program has initiated several outreach and assistance efforts to claimants and state and local agencies in recent years, these efforts are not monitored, resulting in uncertainty as to whether they are adequate.
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Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery, Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
October 2009:
Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program:
Performance Measurement Would Strengthen Accountability and Enhance
Awareness among Potential Claimants:
GAO-10-5:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-10-5, a report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on
Disaster Recovery, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs, U.S. Senate.
Why GAO Did This Study:
In 1976, Congress established the Public Safety Officers‘ Benefits
(PSOB) program, which is administered by the Department of Justice
(Justice) and provides lump-sum payments to eligible public safety
officers and their survivors after a line-of-duty death or permanent
and total disability. The program also provides educational benefits to
an eligible officer‘s spouse and children.
GAO was asked to determine (1) the extent to which claimants receive
PSOB program benefits and how long the claims process takes, (2) any
issues raised by state and local agencies and others who assist
claimants in seeking benefits, and (3) the extent to which the PSOB
program follows recognized government standards and guidelines for
effective program management. To address these objectives, we reviewed
PSOB claims that were opened during fiscal years 2006 to 2008 for all
three types of claims, reviewed relevant agency documents, and
interviewed PSOB program officials, representatives of advocacy
organizations, and state and local officials in five selected states.
What GAO Found:
GAO found that all education claims and over three-quarters of death
claims opened in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were closed and
approved as of April 2009, while only about 31 percent of disability
claims initiated during that period had determinations. The majority of
disability claims remained pending because they took significantly
longer to process than other claims”while education and death claims
were generally processed in under a year, disability claims took
between 17 and 26 months. GAO was unable to pinpoint which steps of the
claims process were most time-consuming because claims files that GAO
reviewed did not consistently document the date when claims passed
through each step of the process.
Figure: Status of Education, Death, and Disability Claims, Fiscal Years
2006 through 2008, as of Date of GAO File Review:
[Refer to PDF for image: horizontal bar graph]
Claim type: Education;
Percentage of closed claims: 100% approved;
Percentage of pending claims: 0.
Claim type: Death;
Percentage of closed claims: 80% approved; 20% denied;
Percentage of pending claims: 20%.
Claim type: Disability;
Percentage of closed claims: 30% approval/denial rates not readily
available;
Percentage of pending claims: 70%.
Source: GAO analysis of data from Justice‘s Bureau of Justice
Assistance.
Note: The percentages above are based on sample data and have, at most,
a plus or minus 10 percent margin of error.
[End of figure]
State and local officials GAO interviewed were generally concerned
about their lack of awareness of certain PSOB program benefits,
challenges with establishing eligibility, and the perceived long wait
time for benefits. Specifically, officials were generally more aware of
death than disability and education benefits. Officials also stated
that submitting all the necessary paperwork to prove eligibility was
difficult and time-consuming due, in part, to how long it took to
obtain necessary documents from other organizations. Officials most
frequently expressed concern about perceived long wait times for
receiving benefits and also reported difficulties obtaining information
about claims status.
While it is taking steps to improve, the PSOB program does not follow
government guidelines for performance monitoring. Specifically,
according to Justice officials, the PSOB program has not set strategic
goals and measures, monitored performance, or reported results because
it is a payment program, and its budget is largely mandatory. However,
other federal programs that provide benefits after work-related injury
and illness have established performance measures, such as ones for
claims-processing timeliness, and report their results publicly. Also,
while the PSOB program has initiated several outreach and assistance
efforts to claimants and state and local agencies in recent years,
these efforts are not monitored, resulting in uncertainty as to whether
they are adequate.
What GAO Recommends:
To enhance program accountability and claimant awareness, GAO
recommends that PSOB establish appropriate performance measures and use
reliable data to monitor and report on the program‘s performance.
Justice agreed with these recommendations and has begun taking steps to
implement program improvements.
View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-5] or key
components. For more information, contact Andrew Sherrill at (202) 512-
7215 or sherrilla@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Background:
All Education Claims and Most Death Claims Were Approved and Were
Processed Significantly Faster than Disability Claims:
Some State and Local Officials We Interviewed Were Concerned about
Their Lack of Awareness of Some Program Benefits, Difficulties with
Establishing Eligibility, and Perceived Long Wait Times for Benefits:
While It Is Taking Steps to Improve, the PSOB Office Does Not Yet
Follow Government Guidelines for Performance Monitoring:
Conclusions:
Recommendations for Executive Action:
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
Appendix II: Summary of Statewide Benefits for the Five States We
Studied:
Appendix III: Summary of Benefits in 50 States:
Appendix IV: Comments from the Office of Justice Programs:
Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
Related GAO Products:
Tables:
Table 1: Required Documentation for Death, Disability, and Education
Claims:
Table 2: Number of Claims in PSOB Population and GAO Sample for Fiscal
Years 2006 to 2008:
Table 3: Selected States by Criteria:
Table 4: Information on the Availability of Benefits Statewide for the
50 States:
Figures:
Figure 1: Percentage of Death, Education, and Disability Claims Filed
in Fiscal Years 2006 through 2008:
Figure 2: PSOB Program Process for Death and Disability Claims:
Figure 3: PSOB Program Process for Education Claims:
Figure 4: Status of Education, Death, and Disability Claims, Fiscal
Years 2006 through 2008, as of Date of GAO File Review:
Figure 5: Average Time in Months from Date of Death or Disability to
Date when the PSOB Office Began Processing the Death, Disability, and
Education Claims, Fiscal Years 2006 through 2008, as of Date of GAO
File Review:
Figure 6: Average Program Processing Time in Months for Closed
Education, Death, and Disability Claims, Fiscal Years 2006 through
2008:
Abbreviations:
BJA: Bureau of Justice Assistance:
COPS: Concerns of Police Survivors:
DCI: data collection instrument:
DI: Social Security Disability Insurance:
DOJ: Department of Justice:
FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency:
GPRA: Government Performance and Results Act of 1993:
IAFF: International Association of Fire Fighters:
NFFF: National Fallen Firefighters Foundation:
OGC: Office of the General Counsel:
OJP: Office of Justice Programs:
OMB: Office of Management and Budget:
PART: Program Assessment Review Tool:
PSOB: Public Safety Officers' Benefits:
SSI: Supplemental Security Income:
[End of section]
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
October 29, 2009:
The Honorable Mary L. Landrieu:
Chairman:
Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery:
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:
United States Senate:
Dear Madam Chairman:
Public safety officers, including law enforcement officers,
firefighters, and emergency medical technicians, are among the first to
respond to potentially dangerous and life-threatening situations,
putting themselves at risk of catastrophic injury or death. The acute
dangers these workers can face have been highlighted in recent years
following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the natural
disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. Over 1.8 million
people have served as public safety officers since 2006, and this
population has averaged about 200 work-related deaths a year. In
appreciation for the service of public safety officers and in
recognition of the potential inadequacy of state and local benefits for
officers and their survivors, Congress established the Public Safety
Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program in 1976.[Footnote 1]
The PSOB program, administered by the Department of Justice's (DOJ)
Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), provides three types of benefits:
death, disability, and education. In cases of line-of-duty death or
injuries that result in permanent and total disability preventing the
performance of any gainful work, public safety officers and their
beneficiaries are currently eligible to receive a onetime lump-sum
payment of $315,746.[Footnote 2] In addition to the lump-sum death and
disability benefits, the officer's spouse and children may also qualify
to receive postsecondary education benefits up to $915 a month.
Typically, the officer's employer (i.e., the state or local agency for
which the officer worked at the time of death or disability) assists
with filing death and disability claims on the officer's behalf, while
claimants generally file for education benefits on their own.
Questions about DOJ's administration of the PSOB program have increased
in recent years, in part because of the time required by the agency to
implement the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003, which
expanded program eligibility requirements to include public safety
officers whose work under certain conditions results in death by heart
attack or stroke while on duty or within 24 hours thereafter.[Footnote
3] DOJ took nearly 3 years after the law was enacted to publish final
regulations and, in the meantime, did not finalize any Hometown Heroes-
related claims, resulting in a backlog of about 200 claims filed under
this law.[Footnote 4]
In light of these issues, we examined the following questions:
(1) To what extent do claimants receive PSOB program benefits and how
long does it take to process claims?
(2) What issues, if any, were raised by state and local agencies and
advocacy organizations seeking benefits on the behalf of claimants?
(3) To what extent does the PSOB program follow recognized government
standards and guidelines for effective program management?
For all three questions, we reviewed claims outcomes, stakeholder
concerns, program management, and relevant federal laws and regulations
related to the PSOB program. To determine receipt of program benefits
and length of the processing time, we drew a stratified random
probability sample of 233 out of the 1,632 PSOB death, disability, and
education claims that were opened during fiscal years 2006 to 2008. Our
sample of cases is generally of a sufficient size to allow us to
project our findings to the universe of death, disability, and
education claims for this time period. All of our percentage estimates
are within a margin of error of plus or minus 10 percentage points at
the 95 percent confidence level for claims approval and denial
outcomes, and 95 percent confidence intervals are reported for
estimates of time, unless otherwise noted. To determine what aspects of
the program raised issues among agencies that assist with benefit
applications, we interviewed PSOB program officials and state and local
officials that serve both larger urban and smaller, more rural
communities in the following five states--California, Iowa, Louisiana,
Maryland, and New York. We selected these states based on a range in
the number of public safety officer deaths in recent years, geographic
location, and other characteristics. The officials we interviewed
represented local police and firefighting departments; employee
advocacy groups, such as chapters of Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc.
(COPS); and the Fraternal Order of Police; state firefighters
associations; and unions. We also interviewed the national affiliates
of these state and local organizations, including the National Fallen
Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) and the International Association of
Fire Fighters (IAFF). Finally, to evaluate the effectiveness of the
PSOB program's management, we interviewed program officials and
reviewed and analyzed available documents on performance monitoring,
program outreach, assistance for those seeking benefits, and current
and future plans for automating the claims process. We analyzed this
information based on criteria set forth in GAO's and the Office of
Management and Budget's (OMB) guidelines for internal controls,
strategic planning and reporting, and information system development
and acquisition. We conducted this performance audit from September
2008 to October 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. Those 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 that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable
basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
For more information about our objectives, scope, and methodology, see
appendix I.
Background:
Congress established the PSOB program in 1976 to demonstrate
appreciation for men and women in public safety careers and assist in
their recruitment and retention, among other purposes. The program
provides death, disability, and education benefits to public safety
officers and their families in the event of the officer's death or
permanent and total disability resulting from employment.[Footnote 5]
While Congress established that funding for death claims is mandatory,
funding for the disability and education portions of the program is
discretionary. As such, in fiscal year 2009, Congress appropriated
"such sums as are necessary" for death benefits (approximately $119
million), $5 million for disability benefits, and $4.1 million for
education benefits. In fiscal year 2009, after adjusting for inflation,
the onetime lump-sum death and disability benefits were $315,746, and
the maximum education benefit was $915 per month.[Footnote 6]
By law, PSOB death and disability benefits are provided in addition to
other benefits to which the officer is entitled and generally should
not affect the receipt of other benefits, including state and local
benefits.[Footnote 7] (See appendix II for more information on benefits
provided by the 5 states we contacted and appendix III for benefits
provided by all 50 states.) In addition, if officers qualify for Social
Security Disability Insurance (DI), their DI benefits are not affected
by the receipt of PSOB benefits.
The PSOB program is administered by the PSOB Office, a unit of BJA
within DOJ's Office of Justice Programs (OJP). It employs a total of 10
staff, including the program director, and had an administrative budget
of $3,000,000 in fiscal year 2009. In fiscal years 2006 through 2008, a
total of 1,632 PSOB claims were filed. The majority, or about 57
percent, were death claims; about 32 percent were education claims; and
about 11 percent were disability claims, as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Percentage of Death, Education, and Disability Claims Filed
in Fiscal Years 2006 through 2008:
[Refer to PDF for image: pie-chart]
Death: 928 claims; 57%;
Education: 517 claims; 32%;
Disability: 187 claims; 11%.
Source: GAO analysis of data from Justice‘s Bureau of Justice
Assistance.
[End of figure]
Program Eligibility:
To qualify for program benefits, claims must be associated with an
officer who worked for a public agency in one of the following official
capacities:
* law enforcement officer;
* firefighter;
* rescue squad or ambulance crew;
* employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who is
responding to a federally declared disaster or emergency;[Footnote 8]
* state, local, or tribal officials who are working in cooperation with
FEMA during a federally declared disaster or emergency; or:
* fire or police department chaplain.
For survivors to qualify for death benefits,[Footnote 9] an officer's
death must have been the direct and proximate result of an injury
sustained in the line of duty.[Footnote 10] The Hometown Heroes
Survivors Benefits Act of 2003 expanded program eligibility to include
public safety officers who die as a direct and proximate result of
heart attacks or strokes while on duty or within 24 hours after
engaging in a nonroutine stressful or strenuous physical public safety
activity or training. To qualify for disability benefits, the public
safety officer has to be permanently and totally disabled as the direct
result of catastrophic injury sustained in the line of duty that
permanently prevents the individual from performing any gainful work.
[Footnote 11] An officer's spouse or children may also qualify for
education benefits only after the officer's eligibility for death or
disability benefits has been established. Spouses may receive education
benefits at any point during their lifetime, while children generally
may receive benefits until the age of 27. In addition, educational
assistance is provided for a maximum of 45 months of full-time
enrollment and students must maintain a cumulative C average.
Consequently, claimants can apply for PSOB education benefits multiple
times over several years.
Application Process:
Typically, the officer's employer (i.e., the state or local agency for
which the officer worked at the time of the death or disability)
assists with filing death and disability claims on the officer's
behalf, while spouses and children seeking education benefits typically
file on their own behalf. By statute, the BJA director is authorized to
use no less than $150,000 of appropriated program funds to maintain and
enhance national peer support and counseling programs to assist
families of public safety officers who have died in the line of duty.
To that end, the PSOB program funds two organizations, COPS and NFFF,
and expects them to use a portion of the money to assist claimants and
agencies with filing PSOB program claims.
Before the PSOB Office drafts an initial determination about whether a
claimant will receive program benefits, it requires claimants to submit
documentation for each type of claim, some of which must be signed by
the officer's employer.[Footnote 12] See table 1 for a list of basic
documentation required for each claim type.
Table 1: Required Documentation for Death, Disability, and Education
Claims:
Document: PSOB report of death form;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: PSOB claim form for death benefits;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: PSOB report of permanent and total disability claim form;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: PSOB application form for education benefits;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Check].
Document: Detailed statement of circumstances;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Investigation, incident, and/or accident reports;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Death certificate;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Autopsy report;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Toxicology report;
Death claim: [Check];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Benefits provider information;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Ta[check] returns;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Claimant statement;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Other medical documentation;
Death claim: if applicable;
Disability claim: [Check];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Current marriage certificate;
Death claim: if applicable;
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Divorce decrees or death certificates for all the officer's
and current spouse's previous marriages;
Death claim: if applicable;
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Birth certificates for all surviving children and
stepchildren;
Death claim: if applicable;
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Statements by children or stepchildren;
Death claim: if applicable;
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Empty].
Document: Other educational assistance;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Check].
Document: Transcript;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Check].
Document: Proof of enrollment;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Check].
Document: Education expenses;
Death claim: [Empty];
Disability claim: [Empty];
Education claim: [Check].
Source: GAO analysis of DOJ data.
Note: According to DOJ officials, other documents are often required
based on the specific issues and complexity of the case.
[End of table]
Claims Processing:
Upon receipt of all the required documentation associated with a claim,
a PSOB benefits specialist reviews the claim and its supporting
documentation and drafts an initial determination on whether to approve
or deny the claim. This draft determination is then reviewed by a
senior benefits specialist, the PSOB director, and OJP's Office of the
General Counsel (OGC) before a final determination is rendered.
[Footnote 13] Furthermore, some death claims are reviewed by a
contracted pathologist and all disability claims are reviewed by
independent medical reviewers of various medical specialties and
subspecialties who provide additional information as to whether claims
meet medical standards for eligibility.[Footnote 14] A claim may go
through different phases of the process multiple times if at any phase
DOJ officials determine that more information may be needed to make a
determination. If a claim is denied, claimants have a right to appeal
to a hearing officer, who reviews the claim and makes a second
determination, which is independent of the initial denial. If the
hearing officer denies the claim, the claimant may appeal to the
director of BJA. And finally, claimants can appeal claims denied by the
director of BJA to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Figure
2 illustrates the process for death and disability claims, while Figure
3 lays out the process for education claims.
Figure 2: PSOB Program Process for Death and Disability Claims:
[Refer to PDF for image: illustration]
1) Claim initiated: Public Safety Officers‘ Benefits Program Office
receives claim; Control Desk assigns a claim number.
2) Benefits specialist reviews claim.
3) Claim application complete?
If yes, go to step 6;
If no, go to step 4.
4) Does claim require a medical review?[A]
If yes, go to step 5;
If no, go to step 6.
5) Independent medical review received.
6) Benefits specialist readies case file and prepares or revises
determination.
7) Senior benefits specialist reviews case file and draft
determination.
8) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 9;
If no[C], go to step 16.
9) PSOB director reviews case file and draft determination.
10) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 11;
If no[C], go to step 16.
11) OJP‘s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) reviews case file and
draft determination.
12) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 13;
If no[C], go to step 16.
13) Claim approved?
If yes, go to step 16;
If no[C], go to step 14.
14) PSOB Office sends claimant a letter stating that their claim was
not approved.
15) Denial: Claimant receives letter from PSOB Office, but has the
right to appeal[D].
16) Benefits specialist requests documentation from the claimant or
relevant public safety agency[B].
17) Claimant or public safety agency sends PSOB required documents or
information.
18) PSOB Office sends claimant an approval letter.
19) Approval: Claimant receives letter from PSOB Office; Control Desk
forwards payment form to Office of the Chief Financial Officer; U.S.
Treasury issues payment (check or direct deposit).
Source: GAO analysis of DOJ and DOJ Office of the Inspector General
documents.
Note: Each claim may go through the review process multiple times
depending on the complexity of any legal issues associated with the
claim.
[A] All PSOB disability claims undergo a medical review.
[B] PSOB's automated claims management system sends a reminder to the
benefits specialist for any claim in the system for which they have not
entered a note in the last 30 days.
[C] If a draft determination is not approved at any level of review,
the benefits specialist may request additional documentation or may
revise the draft determination.
[D] Claimants can appeal denied claims through three levels: hearing
officers, the Bureau of Justice Assistance Director, or the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
[End of figure]
Figure 3: PSOB Program Process for Education Claims:
[Refer to PDF for image: illustration]
1) Public Safety Officers‘ Benefits Program Office receives inquiry;
Benefits Specialist searches system for claimant.
2) Is this a new claim?
If yes, go to step 3;
If no, go to step 6.
3) Benefits specialist verifies eligibility.
4) Claimant eligible?
If yes, go to step 6;
If no, go to step 5.
5) Benefits specialist notifies claimant and claim is not opened.
6) Benefits specialist requests all required documents from claimant.
7) Documentation complete?
If yes, go to step 8;
If no, return to step 6.
8) Claim initiated: Benefits specialist assigns claim number if
necessary and drafts or edits determination, notification and payment
form.
9) Senior benefits specialist reviews case file and draft
determination.
10) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 11;
If no[A], return to step 6.
11) PSOB director reviews case file and draft determination.
12) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 13;
If no[A], return to step 6.
13) OJP‘s Office of the General Counsel reviews case file and draft
determination.
14) Draft determination approved?
If yes, go to step 15;
If no[A], return to step 6.
15) Approval: Control Desk sends payment form to Office of Chief
Financial Officer, benefits specialist sends notification letter to
claimant, and U.S. Treasury issues the payment.
Source: GAO analysis of DOJ and DOJ Office of the Inspector General
documents.
Note: Each claim may go through the review process multiple times
depending on the complexity of any legal issues associated with the
claim.
[A] If a draft determination is not approved at any level of review,
the benefits specialist may request additional documentation or may
revise the draft determination.
[End of figure]
A May 2004 Attorney General's memorandum directed the PSOB Office to
make a determination on all filed PSOB claims within 90 days of
receiving all necessary information and identifying all potential
beneficiaries. The memo also directed the PSOB Office to then draft
written determinations and send all claims to OGC within 30 days for
review. Upon receipt of the draft determination and necessary
supporting documents, OGC should complete its review and submit
recommendations for any changes to the PSOB Office within 45 days.
However, if at any point, PSOB program officials or OGC attorneys
determine that more information or documentation is needed to make a
determination, the 90-day, 30-day and 45-day clock is reset.
Government Guidelines for Performance Monitoring:
All federal executive branch agencies are required by the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) to set strategic goals,
measure performance, and report on the degree to which goals were met
in an effort to ensure government accountability and enhance public
awareness about agencies' accomplishments.[Footnote 15] Agencies are
also subject to the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982,
which requires that they establish and maintain systems of
administrative controls.[Footnote 16] GAO and OMB have established
guidelines for implementing these two acts.[Footnote 17] The guidelines
include establishing goals and performance measures, monitoring
progress--including collecting reliable data on program outcomes--and
communicating program operations and outcomes to relevant stakeholders
such as Congress and the public, including program participants. While
GPRA is applicable to the department or agency-level, performance goals
and measures are important management tools applicable to all levels of
an agency, including the program, project, or activity level,
consistent with leading management practices and internal controls
related to performance monitoring.
All Education Claims and Most Death Claims Were Approved and Were
Processed Significantly Faster than Disability Claims:
On the basis of our sample, as of April 2009, the PSOB Office had
closed and approved most death and all education claims opened in
fiscal years 2006 through 2008. By contrast, an estimated 31 percent of
disability claims were closed during that same time period, and we
could not reliably determine the outcomes of these claims. The majority
of disability claims remained pending because they took significantly
more time to process than death and education claims.
All Education Claims and Over Three-Quarters of Closed Death Claims
Were Approved, while Most Disability Claims Remained Pending:
While we estimated that about 80 percent of all PSOB program claims
initiated in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were closed as of April
2009, we found that the closure rate varied by type of claim--about 100
percent for education claims, 78 percent for death claims, and 31
percent for disability claims. Similarly, of the closed claims we
reviewed, 100 percent of education claims and about 80 percent of death
claims were approved.[Footnote 18] However, we were unable to reliably
determine the extent to which closed disability claims were approved
because our stratified sample produced an insufficient sample size of
closed disability claims considering the relatively longer time frame
to process disability claims.[Footnote 19] (See figure 4.)
Figure 4: Status of Education, Death, and Disability Claims, Fiscal
Years 2006 through 2008, as of Date of GAO File Review:
[Refer to PDF for image: horizontal bar graph]
Claim type: Education;
Percentage of closed claims: 100% approved;
Percentage of pending claims: 0.
Claim type: Death;
Percentage of closed claims: 80% approved; 20% denied;
Percentage of pending claims: 20%.
Claim type: Disability;
Percentage of closed claims: 30% approval/denial rates not readily
available;
Percentage of pending claims: 70%.
Source: GAO analysis of data from Justice‘s Bureau of Justice
Assistance.
Note: The percentages above are based on sample data and have, at most,
a plus or minus 10 percent margin of error.
[End of figure]
Most education claims were associated with law enforcement officers, as
opposed to other types of officers such as firefighters or corrections
officers. During fiscal years 2006 through 2008, about 15 percent of
education claims were filed by the officer's spouse, while about 85
percent were filed by the officer's children. Accordingly, the age of
education claimants at the time they began to receive benefits was
between 18 and 46, with an average age of about 22 years. In addition,
we found that education claimants had received benefits for about 2 and
3 years, on average, at the time of our review and that each claimant
received, on average, between $3,300 and $6,140 per year.
As with education claims, most death claims were associated with law
enforcement officers and were for full-time employees.[Footnote 20] In
general, the most frequently cited causes of death were motor vehicle
accidents, heart attacks, and gunshot wounds. The average age of the
officers at the time of death was 46 years. Officials told us that
death claims were denied because the claimant was deemed ineligible--
for example, the deceased did not die in the line of duty or did not
meet the definition of a public safety officer.
Although we were unable to reliably determine the outcomes of closed
disability claims, our sampling methodology allowed us to determine
demographic characteristics for all disability claims initiated during
our time frame. Specifically, most initiated disability claims were
associated with law enforcement officers, and the average age of the
officers at time of disability was 42 years. Similarly, most disability
claims were filed for full-time employees, and the most frequently
cited causes of disability for such claims were motor vehicle
accidents, assaults, falls, and exposure to harmful substances or
environments.
Death and Education Claims Were Processed in about a Year or Less after
the PSOB Office Received Them, while Disability Claims Took about 2
Years:
We found significant variation by type of claim when it came to the
length of time claimants waited to receive a final determination. The
overall length of time from occurrence of death or disability to the
claimant's receipt of a final determination from the PSOB Office is the
sum of two phases. The first is from occurrence of death or disability
to when the PSOB Office begins to process the claim (prefiling phase),
and the second is from when the PSOB Office begins to process the claim
to when it sends the final determination letter to the claimant
(program processing time).[Footnote 21] Specifically, we found that
while the prefiling phase varied significantly by type of claim, it
took the PSOB office approximately 1 year or less to process death and
education claims and about 2 years to process disability claims after
receiving a claim.
The prefiling phase was the shortest for death claims and longest for
education claims. For death claims filed in fiscal years 2006 through
2008, the prefiling phase took an average of 7 to 12 months from the
date of death to when the PSOB Office started to process the claim.
[Footnote 22] Disability claims took an average of 49 to 68 months (or
about 4 to 6 years), between the date of disability to when the PSOB
Office began to process the claim. Education claims associated with
approved death claims took the longest--between 89 and 123 months (or
about 7 to 10 years) on average from the date of death to when the PSOB
Office began processing the claim. (See figure 5.) The relatively
lengthy prefiling phase for education claims is not unusual given that
an officer's children may not reach college age until years after the
officer's death or disability.
Figure 5: Average Time in Months from Date of Death or Disability to
Date when the PSOB Office Began Processing the Death, Disability, and
Education Claims, Fiscal Years 2006 through 2008, as of Date of GAO
File Review:
[Refer to PDF for image: illustration]
Average date of claim initiation:
Death: 7 to 12 months;
Disability: 49 to 68 months;
Education: 89 to 123 months[A].
Source: GAO analysis of BJA data.
Note: Ranges are based on sample data and represent the upper and lower
bounds of the 95 percent confidence interval for the mean length of
time.
[A] Data show education claims associated with approved death claims
only. Similar data were not available for education claims associated
with approved disability claims.
[End of figure]
PSOB officials told us that several factors may affect the length of
the prefiling phase during which claimants wait to file death and
disability claims, including claimants' difficulty with obtaining
necessary documentation to prove eligibility and potential lack of
awareness about the program. According to PSOB officials, obtaining
this documentation may take months or years. We found that less than 40
percent of the death claims filed in fiscal year 2008 utilized the
online application that the PSOB Office has recently made available to
speed up the application process.
For the second phase of the process, during which the PSOB Office and
OJP's OGC actually processed the claim, processing times averaged 4 to
6 months for education, 9 to 13 months for death, and 17 to 26 months
for disability claims. (See figure 6.)
Figure 6: Average Program Processing Time in Months for Closed
Education, Death, and Disability Claims, Fiscal Years 2006 through
2008:
[Refer to PDF for image: illustration]
Average date of claim notification letter:
Education: 4 to 6 months;
Death: 9 to 13 months;
Disability: 17 to 26 months;
Source: GAO analysis of BJA data.
Note: Ranges are based on sample data and represent the upper and lower
bounds of the 95 percent confidence interval for the mean length of
time.
[End of figure]
PSOB officials told us that disability claims are generally more
challenging and may take longer to process than death and education
claims, in part because eligibility may be less easily established. To
prove eligibility for a disability claim, officials must ensure that
claimants submit adequate medical documentation and that all disability
claims undergo an independent medical review by BJA contractors. Both
these steps could increase the time needed to process these claims.
PSOB officials also noted that, unlike death claims, some disability
claims encounter processing delays caused by the reluctance of former
employers to provide necessary documents to support the claim, many of
which must be approved by the employer. In addition, according to our
sample, disability claims were more likely to be appealed than death or
education claims--about 27 percent of disability claims initiated in
fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were appealed, compared with about 8
percent of death claims--which contributed to longer processing times
for disability claims. Given all of these factors that contributed to
the relatively longer processing times, most disability claims
initiated in fiscal years 2006 through 2008 were still awaiting an
agency determination. At the time of our review, program processing
time for these pending disability claims was already 23 to 28 months,
on average, since the PSOB Office started to process the claim.
For each type of closed claim, the agency processing phase included the
time required for PSOB Office staff to review the claim and draft an
initial determination and for attorneys in OJP's OGC to complete legal
review of the claim. However, we could not determine how long the
attorney review portion of the process took because of the PSOB
Office's inconsistent claim file documentation on the dates during
which the reviews occurred. Furthermore, we were unable to determine
how long the independent medical reviews by BJA contractors took
because the dates the reviews began were often missing from the file
documentation. However, on the basis of our sample, we found that the
overall length of time from occurrence of death or disability to the
claimant's receipt of a final determination was an average of 16 to 21
months for death claims, 60 to 92 months (or 5 years to about 7.5
years) for disability claims, and 96 to 126 months (or about 8 to 10.5
years) for education claims.
Once the program had made its final determination to approve the claim,
it took an average of a few days to about 10 weeks from the date of the
final determination to the date that the payment was sent to the
claimant, regardless of type of claim. We found that the agency may
have taken longer to issue payments when it needed to obtain
information from claimants about their bank accounts, payment
addresses, or both.
Some State and Local Officials We Interviewed Were Concerned about
Their Lack of Awareness of Some Program Benefits, Difficulties with
Establishing Eligibility, and Perceived Long Wait Times for Benefits:
State and local officials were not always aware of PSOB program
benefits, especially those for disability and education. Officials said
that when applying for program benefits, submitting all the necessary
paperwork to establish eligibility was difficult and often time-
consuming. Overall, officials most frequently expressed concern about
what they believed to be a long wait time for PSOB benefits, and
frustration about the lack of communication from the PSOB Office about
claim status and estimated wait times for receiving benefits.
State and Local Officials Were Not Always Aware of PSOB Program
Benefits, Especially Disability and Education Benefits:
Local police and fire departments and officials from other public
safety officer organizations did not always know about PSOB program
benefits. Additionally, some local officials we met with did not recall
receiving any information or program materials from the PSOB Office
explaining the program's benefits. In particular, representatives of 15
of the 44 organizations we spoke with mentioned a lack of awareness
about disability or education benefits, while officials from another 6
organizations were concerned that their constituents had a general lack
of knowledge of the PSOB program. The general lack of awareness posed a
particular problem among smaller rural and volunteer departments. In
some cases, officials we interviewed from small local departments were
not aware of the program benefits until a line-of-duty death occurred.
At that time, they were contacted by unions or larger departments to
let them know about the PSOB death benefit and to assist them with the
application process. For example, one official from a local fire
department in California noted that although he was put in charge of
assisting the family of a firefighter who died in the line of duty, he
did not know about the PSOB program until one of the city's volunteer
firefighters, the former chief of a large city fire department,
informed him about the program.
The lack of awareness had an adverse effect for some claimants. For
instance, an official representing a police officers' union in
Louisiana recalled a case in which a local police department unfamiliar
with the PSOB disability benefits did not seek benefits on behalf of a
severely and permanently disabled officer until the officer happened to
seek educational assistance for his child, who was preparing to attend
college. Likewise, an official from a police officers' employee
association in Louisiana recalled an accident in which one officer was
killed and another was permanently injured. However, while the local
police department applied for PSOB death benefits for the deceased
officer, a corresponding disability claim was not filed for the
disabled officer for 1 year because of lack awareness of PSOB
disability benefits.
Officials from some public safety officer unions and the PSOB program
said that they are more focused on promoting awareness of death
benefits than the other two types of benefits.[Footnote 23] According
to officials from a firefighters union, they do not see a reason to
promote awareness of the disability benefits because few officers would
meet the very stringent eligibility criteria for disability. Several
officials told us that the types and levels of disabilities that would
qualify claimants to receive PSOB benefits (i.e., permanent and total
injury preventing any type of work) tend to be rare, which may be a
factor in the public safety officer community's general lack of
awareness of such benefits, resulting in the relatively few number of
disability claims filed. Additionally, local departments did not always
know about education benefits, which may be due in part to education
claims often being filed by family members many years after a death
occurs. Furthermore, PSOB officials told us that they made a conscious
decision to focus the 2008 PSOB program awareness outreach materials--
the first of their kind to be produced--on death benefits. Therefore,
although the outreach materials the PSOB Office provided contained
program information about all three types of benefits--death,
disability, and education--an application checklist only for death
benefits was included.
Officials Said That Submitting All Necessary Paperwork to Prove
Eligibility Was Difficult and Time-consuming:
Officials in all five states we visited also told us that when applying
for benefits, submitting all the necessary paperwork to prove
eligibility was difficult and can be time-consuming. Specifically,
officials mentioned that it was sometimes difficult for smaller local
departments that may not have experienced line-of-duty deaths and would
be unfamiliar with the process, further complicating their experience
with gathering required documents. For example, officials from
firefighters' employee associations in Louisiana and Iowa mentioned how
difficult generating the toxicology report for a fallen officer can be
if the agency does not know to draw a blood sample from the officer as
soon as possible.[Footnote 24] The Iowa official stated that because of
this lack of knowledge, the claimants in one case had to locate donated
organs of the officer in order to create a toxicology sample for the
PSOB report.
Gathering the required documentation can also be time-consuming, and
our review of claims showed that it took about as much time (7 to 12
months on average) to file a death claim as it took for the program to
process the claim (9 to 13 months on average). According to local
officials, the application process can be delayed by long wait periods
to obtain necessary documents, including accident reports and medical
and birth records, from other state, local, and private organizations.
For example, one official from a firefighters' employee association in
New York described a recent case in which it took several months to
obtain necessary documents from a hospital, resulting in the officer's
family having to wait 6 months before they could submit the death
claim. Similarly, an official from a local police department in
California explained that he had been waiting about 4 months for an
accident report for a line-of-duty death, which hinged on an
investigation being conducted by a different department. This process
of obtaining documents can be even more time-consuming for smaller
departments, which may not have enough staff to systematically follow
up with beneficiaries and coordinate with other local agencies.
State and local officials in Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, and New York
and PSOB officials also stated that a significant amount of time is
often required to collect the information needed by the PSOB Office to
determine eligible beneficiaries. State and local officials told us
that public safety officers tend not to update their beneficiary
information following a life change, such as a divorce or birth of a
child, and this can lead to complications when determining who should
receive benefits. Outdated beneficiary information could affect the
time it takes to process the claim and determine which beneficiaries
should receive payment.
Furthermore, some of the officials we interviewed had mixed experiences
in receiving assistance from COPS and NFFF, two national organizations
tasked by the PSOB program with helping claimants and departments
navigate the application process. While several officials in the
firefighting community mentioned receiving assistance from NFFF with
the PSOB application process, many officials we interviewed from state
and local police departments and agencies that work with police
officers said they have not received application assistance from COPS.
A July 2008 report from COPS to BJA noted that COPS provided training
to its liaisons to local departments in January 2008 to assist agencies
with applications. Following the training, COPS contacted 56 agencies
with known line-of-duty deaths, and 20 of them accepted assistance from
the organization, while the remaining 36 did not, according to the COPS
progress report. A COPS grant report from January 2009 stated that the
low take-up rate of COPS assistance by local agencies may be due to
local police departments' reluctance to share department matters with
an external organization.
Moreover, several officials from national, state, and local
organizations mentioned that the PSOB Office has occasionally lost
claimants' documents that then have to be resubmitted, or that PSOB
officials have asked that the same documents be submitted multiple
times. For example, an official from a local fire department in
California described a situation in which a claimant did not hear from
the PSOB program officials for almost a year after submitting a claim.
When the claimant inquired about the claim status, she learned that the
PSOB program had lost her file. OJP officials acknowledged that this
happens sometimes. While they were not entirely certain why
documentation is lost or misplaced, program officials noted that there
are times when required pieces of documentation may be lost or
misplaced by the PSOB Office, and times when claimants send documents
to another agency or incorrect address, making it more likely that the
PSOB Office will unintentionally misplace documents. PSOB officials
added that they plan to address this concern through automation of the
claims process and anticipate that with more frequent use of the online
application form, the likelihood of misplaced documents will diminish.
PSOB officials told us that the ability to fully submit death claims
electronically, including supporting documentation, has been available
to the public since the spring of 2006, but the vast majority of claims
are still submitted on paper. Further, to better facilitate document
collection, the PSOB Office will be hiring additional staff to
proactively outreach to claimants and local agencies to obtain missing
documentation for pending claims.
Officials Most Frequently Expressed Concerns about Perceived Long Wait
Times for Benefits while Not Knowing Claim Status:
Officials most frequently expressed concerns about what they perceived
as long wait times for PSOB benefits, cited by just over half of the 44
organizations we interviewed. While our claims file review indicated
that the average total time from date of death to date of a final
determination was about 1 ½ years (an average of 16 to 21 months), some
of the officials we interviewed mentioned that they experienced much
longer waits. For example, officials from a national police employees'
organization and a Louisiana police union said that they assisted
claimants who had waited 2 or more years to receive PSOB benefits.
Furthermore, officials from four states--California, Louisiana,
Maryland, and New York--noted that sometimes they do not receive
requests from PSOB Office staff for missing or additional documentation
for claims until long after initial paperwork has been submitted,
contributing to the wait time.
State and local officials generally said that, in contrast, the
application process for state and local onetime death benefits was much
faster and that benefits were provided much quicker than for federal
PSOB benefits. Some local officials also mentioned that they were
concerned about the effects that relatively long PSOB wait times can
have on families in need of the financial assistance and that are
seeking closure on the officer's death. An official from a local police
department in California explained that relatively long wait times for
PSOB benefits can impose a financial burden on families that often
count on federal benefits.
In addition, officials from two COPS chapters and a local police
officers' agency expressed concern about the PSOB program practice of
not informing claimants or agencies of how long claims processing is
expected to take. Officials from Maryland and California noted that
without this information, claimants may develop unrealistic
expectations about how soon they will receive benefit payments. A few
local and state officials told us that the lack of information from
PSOB Office staff on expected processing times restricts the local
department's ability to provide clear answers and good customer service
to the claimants they are assisting. The PSOB program director
explained that the program does not provide estimated time frames for
processing claims because the average processing time varies widely
based on the circumstances surrounding each claim (e.g., how complex
the documentation is, how long the PSOB Office has to wait for
additional documentation, and legal issues). The office instead
provides survivors and agencies with information on the PSOB claims
review process, and shares at what stage their claim is in the review
process, even though PSOB benefit specialists do not tell a claimant
how long it will take to process any one claim.
Further, some state and local department officials experienced
difficulty in getting through to PSOB Office staff for information on
claims status. One official from a local police department in
California reported that despite several attempts to contact the PSOB
program office, he has never spoken to a staff member or received any
return calls. In contrast, a few local and state officials cited
positive interactions with PSOB Office staff, and one state official
noted that in her experience, PSOB benefit specialists were always
responsive and gave timely and clear answers to questions on claim
status. The PSOB program director acknowledged that all calls and e-
mails from claimants or agencies are not always returned and stated
that addressing issues regarding claims status is a priority for the
PSOB program. PSOB officials anticipate having staff dedicated to
providing claims status information to claimants and agencies as early
as November 2009.[Footnote 25]
While It Is Taking Steps to Improve, the PSOB Office Does Not Yet
Follow Government Guidelines for Performance Monitoring:
Overall, we found that while it is taking steps to improve, the PSOB
Office does not follow government standards and guidelines for setting
goals and monitoring performance. All federal executive branch agencies
are required by GPRA to set strategic goals, measure performance, and
report on the degree to which goals have been met in an effort to
ensure government accountability and enhance public awareness about
agencies' accomplishments. GAO's previous work has noted that measuring
performance allows organizations to track progress in meeting their
goals and gives managers crucial information to identify gaps in
program performance and plan any needed improvements.[Footnote 26]
However, DOJ has not established strategic goals or performance
measures related to GPRA for the PSOB Office and therefore does not
track or report such information to the public. OJP officials who are
responsible for overseeing PSOB's strategic efforts said the program is
not subject to strategic planning and goal setting because it is
considered a payment program,[Footnote 27] and a significant portion of
the program's budget is mandatory.[Footnote 28] According to OJP, it
was OMB's practice under the previous administration to not subject
mandatory programs, such as PSOB's death benefits, and smaller OJP
accounts, such as the PSOB disability and education programs to Program
Assessment Review Tool (PART) assessments, which are used by federal
executive branch agencies to help develop and identify meaningful
performance measures to support GPRA reporting, among other purposes.
Furthermore, the PSOB program director told us that the office decided
not to establish performance measures specifically for timeliness
because the measures could create disincentives for staff to work on
claims that may require more time to process, such as those for which
documentation is pending. However, we found that other federal programs
that provide benefits after work-related injury and illness have been
able to set strategic goals and monitor performance. For example, the
Department of Labor's Black Lung and Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation programs, which require workers or their survivors
to prove their eligibility after the workers become ill or die because
of exposure to hazardous working conditions, both have GPRA performance
measures related to claims-processing times and publicly report their
results.
While the PSOB program lacks GPRA-related strategic goals and
performance measures, there are two claims-processing goals established
under a 2004 Attorney General memorandum, but neither the PSOB Office
nor OJP's Office of General Counsel tracks these goals for their
respective offices. The PSOB program director stated that the PSOB
Office did not track the first goal of processing a claim within 90
days of receiving all necessary documentation because it lacked
automated data that would have enabled the program to establish a
baseline and gauge progress. As a result, the PSOB Office is not fully
aware of how long the claims review process takes. Likewise, an OGC
official told us that OGC has not established mechanisms for monitoring
the second goal to review claims within 45 days of receiving all
necessary documentation. Even if the program were to track progress
toward its timeliness goals using currently available information in
the claims files, we found problems with the quality and consistency of
documentation pertaining to key processing dates during our review,
including when the file initially went to the attorneys or the medical
reviewers. In addition, the timeliness goals established in the
memorandum may be outdated and inappropriate given that the PSOB Office
had no data with which to establish and monitor them and that the goals
do not reflect the potentially time-consuming step of collecting
documentation.
While most claims are still processed on paper, the PSOB Office is
implementing a new automated information management system, known as
Workflow, to help ensure efficient claims processing and improve the
available data on claims. According to the PSOB program director, BJA
has been planning the Workflow system since 2004 and according to
program officials, as of July 2009, was transitioning toward processing
all three types of PSOB claims using the completed claims-processing
components of the system.[Footnote 29] In addition, the PSOB program
plans to use data from this system to establish programwide performance
measures and generate public reports. To ensure that Workflow is
addressing agency needs, success metrics--including reducing
application processing times and improving the program's ability to
provide data on pending or closed claims--were articulated in the
system's planning document. However, the PSOB program does not have
plans for how it will monitor Workflow's success metrics, but program
officials had planned to revisit these metrics with stakeholders in
conjunction with planning future components of the system. In addition,
as mentioned earlier, the program has no baseline information on claims-
processing times, precluding it from determining whether the
capabilities of the new system will have enhanced timeliness.
In addition, the PSOB program has initiated several efforts in an
attempt to address concerns about the lack of program awareness, the
burdensome application process, and obtaining claims status. Since
2007, the PSOB program has conducted several outreach activities,
including sending a mailing about its benefit programs to about 60,000
law enforcement and fire fighting organizations identified by the
National Criminal Justice Reference Service and NFFF. The PSOB director
has also attended several conferences, by invitation, to provide
information on the program to relevant constituencies, such as the
National Sheriffs' Association and the Police Conference of New York.
Furthermore, PSOB's national partners, COPS and NFFF, assist claimants
and local agencies with filing for the benefits. With respect to
communicating claims status, PSOB benefits specialists are expected to
respond to claims status inquiries in a timely manner--defined as
within 72 hours of the inquiry, according to the PSOB director.
Although the program has taken steps to enhance its external
communications, it has not systematically monitored these efforts to
help ensure that relevant external parties understand the agency's
mission and objectives and that PSOB Office staff provide the quality
of customer service expected by the program office. Regarding the
difficult application process, COPS has reported that it has not been
successful in providing direct claims assistance to law enforcement
officers even though this group makes up the bulk of PSOB's claims
workload. However, the PSOB program has not established criteria to
evaluate this external assistance effort to better understand the
problems and develop ways to address them. In addition, the PSOB
program director is aware, based on complaints received directly from
claimants and agencies, that PSOB Office staff do not always address
some inquiries regarding claims status in a timely manner. However, the
program does not systematically track when inquiries are received and
when responses are provided, nor is the 72-hour guideline formally
incorporated into staff's performance expectations. As a result, the
PSOB Office cannot ensure that all claims status inquires are addressed
in a consistent and timely manner. Furthermore, although the program
director has provided information at several conferences, the PSOB
program has not systematically solicited feedback from conference
attendees that could be used to determine whether the information met
their needs.
Conclusions:
The PSOB Office has had a long history of serving law enforcement
officers, firefighters, and others who, in turn, serve their
communities and face potentially dangerous circumstances every day. To
effectively manage this program, the PSOB Office would need to know its
clients' needs, target efforts to address those needs, and monitor its
performance on an ongoing basis. While the office has established goals
related to its key activities, (i.e., claims processing, outreach, and
claimant assistance), lack of performance monitoring in these areas
diminishes the agency's ability to pinpoint problems and take
corrective action accordingly. Additionally, the PSOB Office strives to
help the public safety officer community understand the program and its
benefits, yet does not systematically set goals or collect information
on its claims-processing, outreach, and assistance efforts. Thus, the
PSOB Office has no way of knowing whether these efforts are appropriate
or effective. In addition, without reliable claims data, the PSOB
Office will not be able to obtain a complete and accurate picture of
how quickly claims are being processed and whether the process can be
made more efficient. Without this information, the program office
cannot communicate with claimants and other public stakeholders about
how long the claims process is expected to take and whether program
constraints, such as required procedures and limited resources, are
affecting the process. The PSOB director has acknowledged that there
are some gaps in management of the program and is taking steps to
address them. A more focused and systematic approach to managing the
PSOB program can help ensure that the office achieves its ultimate goal
of effectively and efficiently administering benefits that honor the
work of many public officers who give up their lives or are injured in
the line of duty.
Recommendations for Executive Action:
To strengthen PSOB's accountability, enhance potential claimants' and
the general public's awareness about its benefits and program
accomplishments, and ensure claimants and those who assist them receive
the most efficient, consistent, and effective service, the Assistant
Attorney General of OJP should direct the Director of BJA to:
* establish appropriate performance goals and measures related to the
program's key activities, such as claims processing, outreach, and
application assistance, based on reliable information about processing
times, feedback from stakeholders and cost-effective approaches, and:
* once goals and measures have been established, collect and use
reliable data to monitor and publicly report on how well key program
activities are being performed, including how successfully PSOB's
automated claims-processing system, Workflow, is addressing agency
needs.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
We provided a draft of this report to OJP for review and comment, and
its comments are reprinted in appendix IV. OJP also provided technical
comments, which were incorporated into the report as appropriate.
OJP agreed with our recommendations and stated that by October 2010,
BJA will implement appropriate performance measures for the PSOB
program and ensure that reliable program performance data are collected
and publicly reported. Specifically, in addition to plans to make
greater use of its new case management system, OJP stated that it has
assigned a senior advisor to work with BJA and OGC to identify areas
where simple process changes can lead to earlier and more effective
identification of issues.
In addition, several enhancements to the PSOB program's business
process, communications, and marketing have been implemented or are
scheduled to be in place by December 2009. For example, the PSOB Office
will formalize the feedback it receives from external stakeholders by
developing a PSOB Advisory Group to identify issues that affect the
PSOB Office, program, and processes. Additional details on these
program enhancements can be found in the agency's reprinted comments.
As agreed with your offices, unless you publicly announce its contents
earlier, we plan no further distribution of this report until 30 days
after its issue date. At that time, we will send copies of this report
to the Assistant Attorney General of OJP, relevant congressional
committees, and other interested parties. We will also make copies
available to others upon request. In addition, the report will be
available at no charge on GAO's Web site at [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov]. If you or your staff have any questions concerning
this report, please contact me at (202) 512-7215 or sherrilla@gao.gov.
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Staff members
making key contributions to this report are listed in appendix V.
Sincerely yours,
Signed by:
Andrew Sherrill:
Director Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues:
[End of section]
Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology:
In response to a congressional request, we addressed the following
questions about the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program:
(1) To what extent do claimants receive PSOB program benefits and how
long does it take to process claims?
(2) What issues, if any, were raised by state and local agencies and
advocacy organizations seeking benefits on the behalf of claimants?
(3) To what extent does the PSOB program follow recognized government
standards and guidelines for effective program management?
For all three questions, we reviewed claims outcomes, stakeholder
concerns, program management, and relevant federal laws and regulations
related to the PSOB program. Specifically, to determine receipt of
program benefits and length of processing time, we drew a stratified
random probability sample of 233 of the 1,632 PSOB death, disability,
and education claims that were opened during fiscal years 2006 to 2008.
Because education benefits can be provided over multiple years, the
education claims in our sample were ones that were paid during fiscal
years 2006 to 2008, although they may have been first opened several
years prior to our time frame. With this probability sample, each
member of the study population had a nonzero probability of being
included, and that probability could be computed for any member. Each
sample element selected was subsequently weighted in the analysis to
account statistically for all the members of the population. Table 2
provides details about the number of claims in our sample by type
compared with the total number opened in fiscal years 2006 to 2008.
Table 2: Number of Claims in PSOB Population and GAO Sample for Fiscal
Years 2006 to 2008:
Type of PSOB claim: Death;
Population size: 928;
Sample size: 88.
Type of PSOB claim: Disability;
Population size: 187;
Sample size: 64.
Type of PSOB claim: Education;
Population size: 517;
Sample size: 81.
Source: Department of Justice and GAO analysis.
[End of table]
We collected most of the data for our sample by manually reviewing
paper claims files from February to April 2009 using a data collection
instrument (DCI). The only data for our sample that were not contained
in the paper claims files pertained to payment dates for all approved
claims and payment amounts for the approved education claims. These
data were obtained from the Department of Justice's (DOJ) finance
office and were determined to be sufficiently reliable for the purposes
of our report after we reviewed the data for any discrepancies and
information on how they were collected and maintained.
In general, our sample of claims is of a sufficient size to allow us to
project our estimates to the population of death, disability, and
education claims for fiscal years 2006 to 2008 within a margin of error
of plus or minus 10 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence
level for claims approval and denial outcomes, and 95 percent
confidence intervals are reported for estimates of time, unless
otherwise noted. However, in specific instances, we were not able to
project to the population when the number of claims in the sample that
met a certain criterion for our analysis was too small. For example,
only 20 disability cases in our sample were closed at the time of our
review, and therefore this sample size was too small to create reliable
estimates of the extent to which all disability cases were approved or
denied. Also, the sample size prohibited us from estimating the
proportion of all three types of claims that came from any single
state.
In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of collecting
data may introduce other errors, commonly referred to as nonsampling
errors. As mentioned above, we collected most of the data for our
sample by manually reviewing paper claims files. Variation in the
quality or completeness of the entries in these claims files or in our
ability to correctly interpret or transcribe the entries onto our DCI
can introduce unwanted variability into the results. We took steps in
developing our DCI, collecting the data, and analyzing the results to
minimize such errors. For example, the instrument was developed by a
survey specialist in collaboration with GAO subject matter experts. The
DCI was also reviewed by relevant DOJ officials prior to our use to
help ensure that we maximized the information that could be collected
by using it. A sample of completed DCIs was reviewed by another GAO
analyst to ensure that entries were being interpreted and entered
correctly. Completed DCIs were then entered into an electronic database
by a contract data entry service and a sample of entries was verified.
Finally, data were analyzed by a GAO data analyst, and a second
independent data analyst checked all computer programs for accuracy.
To determine what aspects of the program raised issues among agencies
that assist with benefit applications, we interviewed PSOB program
officials and a judgmentally selected sample of state and local
officials that serve both larger urban and smaller, more rural
communities in the following five states--California, Iowa, Louisiana,
Maryland, and New York. These interviews were held with representatives
from a total of 44 organizations. As shown in table 3, the states were
selected based on geographic location, the percentage of the national
total number of public safety officers that was in a state for calendar
years 2006 to 2008, the number of work-related deaths among public
safety officers in a state for calendar years 2005 to 2007, variation
in the amount of state workers' compensation benefits, variation in the
availability and amount of state lump-sum death benefits, and
recommendations from advocacy groups and employee organizations. (For
more details on the benefits available to public safety officers, see
appendices II and III.)
Table 3: Selected States by Criteria:
Criterion: Percentage of all U.S. public safety officers (Range: 0.1% -
9.6%);
California: 9.6%;
New York: 8%;
Louisiana: 1.9%;
Iowa: 0.6%;
Maryland: 2.2%.
Criterion: Number of public safety officer deaths, 2005-2007;
(Ranges in 3 tiers; high = 34-61; medium = 17-33; low = 0-16);
California: high; (61);
New York: high; (36);
Louisiana: medium; (21);
Iowa: Not available[A];
Maryland: low; (12).
Criterion: State workers' compensation disability amount (compared with
two-thirds gross wage replacement formula utilized by most states);
California: equal; (66.6%);
New York: greater; (100%);
Louisiana: equal; (66.6%);
Iowa: greater; (100%);
Maryland: equal; (66.6%).
Criterion: Onetime death benefit amount;
California: None;
New York: None;
Louisiana: $250,000;
Iowa: $100,000;
Maryland: $128,500.
Criterion: Recommended;
California: [Check];
New York: [Check];
Louisiana: [Check];
Iowa: [Empty];
Maryland: [Check].
Criterion: Geographic region;
California: West;
New York: Northeast;
Louisiana: South;
Iowa: Midwest;
Maryland: South.
Source: GAO analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
National Association of Fallen Firefighters, Concerns of Police
Survivors, Inc., and interviews with employee and advocacy groups.
[A] Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not report on the number of
deaths if it is less than five and may raise concerns about
confidentiality. However, BLS officials told us that work-related
deaths did occur among public safety officers in Iowa during calendar
years 2005-2007.
[End of table]
We focused on interviewing local officials who assisted with filing
PSOB claims during fiscal years 2006 to 2008, but in a few cases, in
order to ensure we were obtaining a variety of perspectives, we
interviewed officials who assisted with claims associated with deaths
that occurred in 2005. The officials we interviewed represented local
police and firefighting departments; employee advocacy groups, such as
chapters of Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. (COPS); and the
Fraternal Order of Police; and state firefighters associations and
unions. We also interviewed the national affiliates of these state and
local organizations, including the National Fallen Firefighters
Foundation (NFFF) and the International Association of Fire Fighters
(IAFF).
To evaluate the effectiveness of the PSOB program's management, we
interviewed program officials and reviewed and analyzed available
documents on performance monitoring, program outreach and assistance
for those seeking benefits, and current and future plans for automating
the claims process. We analyzed this information based on criteria set
forth in GAO's and the Office of Management and Budget's guidelines for
internal controls, strategic planning and reporting, and information
system development and acquisition. Overall, we conducted this
performance audit from September 2008 to October 2009 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those 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 that the evidence
obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions
based on our audit objectives.
[End of section]
Appendix II: Summary of Statewide Benefits for the Five States We
Studied:
This section provides general information on benefits available to
public safety officers and their beneficiaries after line-of-duty
deaths and permanent and total injuries on a statewide level in
California, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, and New York. These benefits are
not the full extent of what officers may receive in each state because
localities may provide additional benefits. To prepare this
information, we interviewed state and local officials during our site
visits to collect information about the kinds of statewide benefits
available to public safety officers and reviewed program materials that
were either provided by these officials or obtained through the
programs' Web sites. Our descriptions are based on our interviews and
any written materials we obtained. We did not do any independent legal
research or otherwise verify this information.
California Statewide Line-of-Duty Benefits for Police Officers and
Firefighters:
Onetime death benefits. None are available.
Workers' compensation: disability benefit. Officers who are permanently
and totally disabled can receive two-thirds of their wages up to $728
per week for the rest of their lives, along with medical treatment
related to the injury.
Workers' compensation: death benefit. Benefits are paid to the
officers' dependents on a weekly basis until a maximum of $320,000 is
reached.
State pension system: disability benefit. For officers whose employers
have contracted with the California Public Employees System to provide
retirement benefits, if the officers are permanently and totally
disabled because of a line-of-duty incident, they will receive monthly
payments for life. The payments are based on a formula that factors in
years of service and final compensation amounts.
State pension system: death benefit. For officers whose employers have
contracted with the California Public Employees System to provide
retirement benefits, surviving spouses, registered domestic partners,
children, or eligible stepchildren will receive 50 percent of the
officer's final compensation. If there is a surviving spouse (or
registered domestic partner) and children, they will can receive a
maximum of 75 percent of the final compensation. Benefits for the
spouse (or registered domestic partner) are payable until death, or for
children are payable until age 22. Furthermore, health care for the
survivors will continue if they are receiving a monthly benefit from
the system.
Education benefit. Children and spouses of public safety officers who
are killed or become totally disabled in the line of duty can receive
grants that will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, educational
supplies, and living expenses associated with an undergraduate
education at an accredited California postsecondary institution.
Iowa Statewide Line-of-Duty Benefits for Firefighters, Police Officers,
and Sheriffs:
Onetime death benefit. Available to volunteer firefighters, career
firefighters, police officers, and sheriffs: $100,000 provided to
beneficiaries by either the Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office (for
volunteer firefighters) or the state pension programs.
Workers' compensation: death benefit. Available to volunteer
firefighters: Dependents (either spouse or children up to age 18 or 25,
if they can prove they were still dependent) can receive the weekly
payments of 100 percent of actual weekly earnings or 140 percent of the
statewide average weekly wage, whichever is greater. Upon remarriage,
if there are no children, the spouse will receive a 2-year lump-sum
settlement. Also, burial expenses not to exceed 12 times the statewide
average weekly wage will be paid.
Workers' compensation: disability benefit. Available to volunteer
firefighters: As long as the worker is totally and permanently
disabled, he or she will receive 100 percent of actual weekly earnings
or 140 percent of the statewide average weekly wage, whichever is
greater. All medical expenses related to injury will be paid.
State pension: death benefits.
For career firefighters and police officers: In the case of accidental
death in the line of duty, state pension systems provide the surviving
spouse with monthly pension benefits for life equal to 50 percent of
the officer's average final compensation. The officers' children also
receive a monthly amount equal to 6 percent of the officer's final
average compensation.[Footnote 30]
For sheriffs: If vested, beneficiaries will receive the greater of
either the lump sum of present value of accrued benefits or a lump sum
based on a formula including years of service, highest salary covered
under the system, and other factors. If not vested, beneficiaries will
receive a lump sum based on years of service, highest salary covered
under the system, and other factors.
State pension: disability benefits. Available to career firefighters,
police officers, and sheriffs: In the case of permanent and total
disability incurred in the line of duty, state pension systems provide
the greater of 60 percent of the member's final average compensation or
the retirement allowance that the member would receive if the member
has attained 55 years of age.
Education benefit. None are available.
Louisiana Statewide Line-of-Duty Benefits for Firefighters, Police
Officers, and Sheriffs:
Onetime death benefit. Available to volunteer firefighters, career
firefighters, police officers, and sheriffs: $250,000 to the surviving
spouse, designated beneficiary, or estate, and $25,000 to each
dependent child.
Workers' compensation: disability benefit.[Footnote 31]
For volunteer firefighters: Covers medical expenses related to injuries
but does not replace wages.
For career firefighters, police officers, and sheriffs: If an officer
is permanently and totally disabled, he or she will receive two-thirds
of the weekly salary for life, with a maximum of $546 a week. Workers'
compensation will provide for related medical costs for life.
Workers' compensation: death benefit. Available to career firefighters,
police officers, and sheriffs: If the officer is survived by a spouse,
the spouse will receive 32.5 percent of the public safety officer's
wage, and if survived by a spouse and children, they will receive 65
percent of the officer's wages, with a weekly maximum of $319. A
maximum funeral benefit of $3,000 is also available.
State pension system: death benefit.
For career firefighters: Most career firefighters are covered under
this system, but it excludes the New Orleans and Baton Rouge fire
departments. For line-of-duty deaths, the spouse is eligible for two-
thirds of the average annual salary if the officer was not eligible to
retire. If the officer was retirement eligible, then the spouse will
receive 3.5 percent of the officer's annual salary time the number of
years of service, which is one of the standard retirement options. This
benefit is for the rest of the spouse's life. Furthermore, the
surviving children are eligible for 10 percent of the annual salary or
$200 a month, whichever is greater. This benefit continues until the
children are 18 or, if in college, 22 years old. However, the spousal
and children's benefit cannot total more than 100 percent of the
officer's annual salary. Furthermore, the spouse must be married to and
living with the officer at the time of death to receive the benefits.
Also, there are no benefits for surviving parents if the officer does
not have a spouse or children.
For police officers: Most local police officers are covered under this
system. If the officer dies in the line of duty, the spouse is provided
with 100 percent of the final average salary, less the benefit for the
children. If the officer had a spouse and children, the children will
receive 10 percent of the final average salary or $200 a month,
whichever is greater. If there is no spouse, the children will receive
30 percent each (not to exceed 60 percent of the salary; therefore, if
there are more than 3 children, the 60 percent has to be shared among
them) of the salary until age 18 or, if in college, age 23. If there is
no spouse or children, the surviving parents can receive the officer's
retirement fund contributions. Although this program does not have
restrictions related to the length of marriage, the spouse cannot
remarry before the age of 55 and continue to receive benefits.
For sheriffs: The surviving spouses of sheriffs receive the greater of
50 percent of the average compensation or, if the officer has served
for at least 12 years, about $1,600 a month. Benefits are for life
regardless of remarriage. Each minor child receives 15 percent of the
officer's compensation until the age of 18 or, if in college, age 23,
but the combination of the spousal and children's benefits cannot
exceed more than 100 percent of the final compensation. If there is no
surviving spouse and five or more children, 60 percent of the final
compensation will be divided evenly among them. Spouses must be married
and living with the officer at the time of death.
State pension system: disability benefit.
For volunteer firefighters: The state fire marshal's office provides
for medical expenses up to $30,000.
For career firefighters: Most career firefighters are covered under
system, but it excludes the New Orleans and Baton Rouge fire
departments. For total disability, the officer can receive 60 percent
of the average final salary, a portion of which is tax-free. This
benefit is offset by other sources of income.
For police officers: Most local police officers are covered under this
system. For catastrophic injuries, the officer receives 100 percent of
his or her salary, but this is offset by other sources of income.
For sheriffs: Officers are provided the lesser of 45 percent of the
final compensation or the accrued retirement benefit at the time of
employment termination.
Education benefit. Children of police officers and sheriffs who died in
the line of duty and the children and spouses of deceased or disabled
firefighters who died or were injured in the line of duty are provided
benefits to cover the costs of tuition, fees, room and board, and
books.
Maryland Statewide Line-of-Duty Benefits for Police Officers and
Firefighters:
Onetime death benefit.[Footnote 32] A onetime benefit of $128,500 is
available (if the death occurred as of July 1, 2008) to the surviving
spouse, children, dependent parents, or estate of a law enforcement
officer; career or volunteer firefighter; correctional officer; rescue
squad member; or sworn officer of the State Fire Marshal. Also, the
state provides an additional $10,000 for funeral expenses.
Workers' compensation: death benefit. All part-time and full-time
public safety officers are covered. Benefit level to the surviving
spouse or children is based on the level of financial dependency. If
fully dependent, the surviving spouse or children receive two-thirds of
the employee's average weekly salary, not to exceed 100 percent of the
state average weekly salary, or no more than $906 a week for the
remainder of the spouse's life or until children are 18 years old or,
if attending college, 22 years old. If partially dependent, the
surviving spouse receives a weekly payment of two-thirds of the average
employee's salary up to the maximum of $75,000. If survived only by
partially dependent children, the children can receive two-thirds
average employee salary, not to exceed two-thirds of the state average
wage, or no more than $604 a week, until 18 years old or, if in
college, 22 years old.
Workers' compensation: disability benefits. All part-time and full-time
public safety officers are covered. The officer receives two-thirds of
his or her average weekly salary, not to exceed 100 percent of the
state average weekly salary, or no more than $906 a week for the
remainder of his or her life. Health care related to the injury is
provided for life.
Education benefits. The former, unmarried spouses and children of all
public safety officers who died or are 100 percent disabled can receive
up to $19,000 a year to attend a Maryland postsecondary educational
institution. The disabled officer is also eligible for this benefit.
New York Statewide Line-of-Duty Benefits for Police Officers, Career
Firefighters, and Volunteer Firefighters:
Onetime death benefit. None are available.
Workers' compensation: death benefit.[Footnote 33] For volunteer
firefighters: For deaths occurring after January 1, 2006, $56,000 to
spouse or estate. For deaths that occur after January 2, 2006, the
spouse without children also receives $887 per week until remarriage.
After remarriage, the spouse receives a lump-sum payment of $92,219. If
the deceased had a spouse and children, the spouse receives $488 per
week and the children receive $400 per week. Upon remarriage, the
spouse with children will receive $50,720 and the children continue to
receive the weekly payment. The children receive the benefit until age
18, or, if in college, age 25. Funeral costs up to $6,700 are also
payable, but this maximum does not apply if the death occurs as a
direct result of firefighting.
Workers' compensation: disability benefit. For volunteer firefighters:
If permanently and total disabled, the officer receives $400 per week
and medical benefits directly related to the original injury or
illness.
State pension: death benefit. Available to police officers and career
firefighters: If the officer's death is deemed to be accidental (i.e.,
natural and proximate because of an on-the-job accident that did not
occur because of willful personal negligence), the spouse, minor
children, or dependent parent (in that order) will receive 50 percent
of the officer's final annual salary in the form of a pension.
Sheriffs' spouses can no longer receive this pension if they remarry.
State pension: disability benefit. Available to police officers and
career firefighters: If the disability is deemed to be accidental
(i.e., permanently incapacitated--mentally or physically--and unable to
perform the job as a result of an on-the-job injury accident not due to
personal negligence), the officer will receive 75 percent of his or her
final annual salary and an annuity for life based on his or her pension
contributions. If eligible, the officer is expected to file for
workers' compensation, and pension payments will be offset by this.
Education benefit. Available to police officers and career and
volunteer firefighters: Memorial Scholarships provide funds to help
meet the cost of attending college in New York for children, spouse, or
financial dependents after a line-of-duty death. The award covers up to
4 years of full-time undergraduate study (or 5 years in an approved 5-
year bachelor's degree program) and includes the following components:
in-state public college or university: actual tuition and mandatory
educational fees; actual room and board; and allowances for books,
supplies, and transportation; at a private institution: an amount equal
to an in-state public university tuition and average mandatory
educational fees and allowances for room and board, books, supplies,
and transportation.
[End of section]
Appendix III: Summary of Benefits in 50 States:
The following table provides information on the availability of
selected benefits provided statewide after public safety officers
experience line-of-duty death or disability. To prepare the following
table, we analyzed information made available by two organizations--the
Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. and the National Fallen Firefighters
Foundation. We did not do any independent legal research or otherwise
verify this information.
Table 4: Information on the Availability of Benefits Statewide for the
50 States:
State: Alabama;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Alabama; Firefighters (FF);
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Career: yes;
volunteer: elective;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Alabama; Law enforcement (LE);
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Alaska;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: FF only;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: Alaska; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Career: yes;
volunteer: elective;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Alaska; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Arizona;
Onetime death benefit: LE only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Arizona; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Arizona; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Arkansas;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Arkansas; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Arkansas; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: California;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: California; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: California; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Colorado;
Onetime death benefit: FF-no;
LE-no information;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: LE only.
State: Colorado; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Colorado; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No information available;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Connecticut;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: FF only;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Connecticut; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Connecticut; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Delaware;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Delaware; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Delaware; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: District of Columbia;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: FF-yes;
LE-no information;
Education benefit-children: FF-no;
LE-no information;
Education benefit-spouse: FF-no;
LE-no information.
State: District of Columbia; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: District of Columbia; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: No information available;
Education benefit-children: No information available;
Education benefit-spouse: No information available.
State: Florida;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Florida; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Florida; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Georgia;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: FF-yes;
LE-no information;
Retirement/pension plan: FF-yes;
LE-no information;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Georgia; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Georgia; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: No information available;
Retirement/pension plan: No information available;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Hawaii;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Hawaii; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Hawaii; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Idaho;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: FF-yes;
LE-no information;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF-no;
LE-no information.
State: Idaho; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Career: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Idaho; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: No information available;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No information available.
State: Illinois;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Illinois; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Illinois; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Indiana;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Indiana; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Indiana; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Iowa;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Iowa; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Iowa; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Kansas;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Kansas; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Kansas; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Kentucky;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: Kentucky; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Kentucky; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Louisiana;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Louisiana; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Career: yes;
Funeral benefit: Career: yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Louisiana; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Maine;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: Maine; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Maine; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Maryland;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Maryland; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Maryland; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Massachusetts;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: Massachusetts; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Massachusetts; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Michigan;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Michigan; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Michigan; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Minnesota;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Minnesota; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Minnesota; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Mississippi;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Mississippi; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Mississippi; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Missouri;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Missouri; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Missouri; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Montana;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: FF only;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Montana; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Montana; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: No;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Nebraska;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Nebraska; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Varies by locality;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Nebraska; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Varies by locality;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Nevada;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Nevada; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Nevada; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: New Hampshire;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: New Hampshire; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: New Hampshire; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: New Jersey;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New Jersey; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New Jersey; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New Mexico;
Onetime death benefit: LE only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New Mexico; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Career: yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New Mexico; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New York;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New York; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: New York; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Carolina;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Carolina; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Carolina; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Dakota;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Dakota; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: North Dakota; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Ohio;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Ohio; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Ohio; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Oklahoma;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Oklahoma; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Oklahoma; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Oregon;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: Oregon; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Career: yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Career: yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Career: yes.
State: Oregon; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Pennsylvania;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Pennsylvania; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Pennsylvania; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Puerto Rico;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: LE only;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Puerto Rico; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Puerto Rico; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Varies by locality;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Rhode Island;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: LE only;
Funeral benefit: LE only;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Rhode Island; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: No;
Funeral benefit: No;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Rhode Island; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: South Carolina;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: South Carolina; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: South Carolina; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: South Dakota;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: FF only.
State: South Dakota; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: South Dakota; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Tennessee;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Tennessee; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Volunteer: yes;
Workers' compensation: Career: yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Tennessee; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Texas;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Texas; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Texas; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Utah;
Onetime death benefit: LE only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Utah; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Utah; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Vermont;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Vermont; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Vermont; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Virginia;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Virginia; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Virginia; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Washington;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Washington; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Washington; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: West Virginia;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: West Virginia; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: West Virginia; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Wisconsin;
Onetime death benefit: FF only;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: FF only;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Wisconsin; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: Yes;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Career: yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Wisconsin; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: No;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: Yes.
State: Wyoming;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: FF only;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Wyoming; Firefighters;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: Yes;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
State: Wyoming; Law enforcement;
Onetime death benefit: No;
Workers' compensation: Yes;
Funeral benefit: Yes;
Retirement/pension plan: Yes;
Education benefit-children: No;
Education benefit-spouse: No.
Source: GAO analysis of information from the Concerns of Police
Survivors, Inc., and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
[End of table]
[End of section]
Appendix IV: Comments from the Office of Justice Programs:
Department of Justice:
Office of Justice Programs:
Office of the Assistant Attorney General:
Washington, D.C. 20531:
October 1, 2009:
Mr. Andrew Sherrill:
Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues:
Government Accountability Office:
441 G Street, NW:
Washington, DC 20548:
Dear Mr. Sherrill:
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled "Public Safety Officers'
Benefits Program: Performance Measurement Would Strengthen
Accountability and Enhance Awareness Among Potential Claimants" (GAO-10-
5). The draft GAO report contains one Recommendation for Executive
Action to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is restated in bold
text below and is followed by our response.
To strengthen the PSOB's accountability, enhance potential claimants'
and the general public's awareness about its benefits and program
accomplishments, and ensure claimants and those who assist them receive
the most efficient, consistent, and effective service, the Assistant
Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs should direct the
Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance to:
* Establish appropriate performance goals and measures related to the
program's key activities, such as claims processing, outreach, and
application assistance, based on reliable information about processing
times, feedback from stakeholders and cost-effective approaches; and;
* Once goals and measures have been established, collect and use
reliable data to monitor and publicly report on how well key program
activities are being performed, including how successfully PSOB's
automated claims processing system, Workflow, is addressing agency
needs.
The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) agrees with the Recommendation for
Executive Action. By October 2010, the Bureau of Justice Assistance
(BJA) will implement appropriate performance measures for the Public
Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program, ensure that reliable data to
monitor and publicly report on the program are collected and create a
system to publicly report on how well key program activities are being
performed.
Enacted in 1976, the PSOB program is a partnership effort of the PSOB
office, BJA, OJP, the U.S. Department of Justice and local, state, and
federal public safety agencies and national organizations, to provide
death, disability and education benefits to eligible public safety
officers. The PSOB office strives to provide exceptional services to
survivors in the face of tragedy and to approve every claim allowable
according to the law. In Fiscal Year 2008, for example, the PSOB office
approved 377 death claims, the highest rate of approvals with the
exception of the especially tragic year in which September 11, 2001
PSOB claims were determined.
The Office of Justice Programs, and especially the PSOB Office, is
fully committed to identifying ways to move PSOB claims more rapidly
through the review process, and has already planned a number of
enhancements to more effectively meet its mission while increasing
program accountability. The Acting Assistant Attorney General has made
the improvement of the PSOB program one of her highest priorities and
has assigned a Senior Advisor from her office to work closely with BJA
and the Office of the General Counsel to identify areas where simple
process changes can lead to earlier and more effective identification
of issues. Additionally, the PSOB office has been engaged in a long
term plan to implement a technological solution that will help track
cases and data and allow claims specialists access to the data
necessary to both process the claims and provide claimants with useful
information about the status of their claims.
Below are details regarding enhancements that have been implemented, or
are scheduled to be in place by December 2009. All of the enhancements
directly support GAO's recommendation "to enhance program
accountability and claimant awareness."
Tracking Cases and Collecting Data:
Case Management System. The PSOB office has been working with a
contractor to develop a case management system, Workflow, that will
allow for the tracking of all claims as well as allow for the
collection of data regarding claims processing. The first
implementation phase of the Workflow was completed in the summer of
2009, with all active (and many closed) PSOB death and disability cases
entered into the system to capture and monitor critical details on
death, disability, and education claims. The Workflow is the foundation
for increased efficiency for claim reviews, as well as the development
of a system to provide more frequent and informative updates to
survivors and agencies regarding claim status. Beginning in late 2007,
PSOB claim-related documents from agencies and survivors have been
scanned and stored electronically to increase accessibility of claim
information among staff, prevent document loss, and move even closer to
an internal c-claim review process for all PSOB claims.
Using Data to Improve and Report on Performance:
Business Process/Policies and Procedures. With the first phase of the
PSOB Workflow completed, in 2009 the PSOB Office will begin the
development of a PSOB Policies and Procedures Manual, identifying each
step and standard in the process, from the initiation of a claim to its
approval and payment, or non-approval.
Survivor and Agency Awareness and Access. As of May 2006, agencies and
survivors can access the forms required to file a PSOB death claim at
https://www.psob.gov, and also attach and submit all required documents
to support the claim through the same site. In addition, in 2008, PSOB
designed and distributed for the first time ever the PSOB Information
Kit (Kit) to more than 60,000 public safety agencies and national
partners across the country. The Kit included a copy of the updated
regulations; easy-to-use checklists for both non-Hometown Heroes and
Hometown Heroes (eligible heart attacks and strokes) claims; PSOB death
claim forms; and an information card for public safety officers' loved
ones to keep with other important papers should a tragedy occur. The
comprehensive Attorney General's Guide to the Hometown Heroes
Survivors' Benefits Act was also finalized and distributed to these
same agencies in mid-2008.
All forms, as well as communication letters, PSOB checklists, and
informational materials, are available in Spanish. Additionally,
https://www.psob.gov was unveiled in May 2006 in Spanish for PSOB's
Spanish-speaking officers and survivors to file claims online.
Field Support. As of 2008, PSOB's national partners and grantees,
Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) and National Fallen
Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), implemented locally-based support teams
nationwide in a concentrated effort to provide grass-roots support to
agencies and survivors when a line-of-duty death occurs. The teams are
available to provide direct, in-person assistance to both survivors and
surviving agencies throughout the PSOB claim submission and review
process. Working in collaboration with these national partners, the
C.O.P.S./NFFF project is intended to improve the completeness of claims
submitted to the PSOB Office, help reduce and prevent "getbacks"
required from agencies on additional Information that might be required
to complete the claim review, and provide in-person agency and survivor
support and updates at the local level.
PSOB Advisory Group. Since 2004, PSOB has called upon related public
safety partners to help advise the BJA Director and PSOB Director on
issues impacting the PSOB Office, program, and processes. The
development of a PSOB Advisory Group will formalize this process, allow
the PSOB Office to tap into the expertise of a diverse group of justice
professionals, and offer partners a window into issues impacting PSOB
claims. PSOB anticipates that the pilot meeting of the Advisory Board
will occur by the end of October, 2009.
Improving Outreach to Claimants and Stakeholders:
PSOB Call Line. A frequent request of the PSOB Office is that the PSOB
telephone line be staffed more hours during the day. PSOB has awarded a
contract to establish a customer call line that will be fully staffed
by two customer call specialists from the hours of 7:00 a.m. ” 7:00
p.m., Monday through Friday. The PSOB office has held its first meeting
with the contractor and expects that the call line will begin
operations in approximately the next six weeks. The call line will
further demonstrate the commitment of the PSOB Office and DOJ to
survivors and surviving agencies experiencing a line of duty death or
catastrophic disability.
Personnel/Performance. Simply put, the more individuals making calls
and sending emails to claimants and agencies the stronger the
communication bridge between PSOB and its customers. Whether weekly, bi-
weekly, or monthly, intensive outreach conveys "Your claim is not
lost." Five outreach specialists will provide proactive claim outreach,
capture critical data on each claim in the PSOB case management system,
and scan incoming documents to maintain an e-copy of each file. An
immediate and minimum performance measure for these specialists will be
returning all calls and emails to agencies and claimants within 24
hours of receipt.
These specialists will also be responsible for running Workflow data
reports that the PSOB Director will use to inform the BJA Director
regarding all active and recently closed claims. These reports arc also
being used to help form the foundation for an online website for
claimants to check the status of their active claims.
Finally, two paralegals will also be added to the PSOB Office to work
directly with the PSOB Benefits Specialists and PSOB Director early in
the claim process to help analyze supporting documentation, identify
legal issues, and streamline the formal legal review process.
Paralegals will also be used to help expedite the unprecedented number
of active PSOB appeals.
Marketing and Outreach. The PSOB program was intended to assist in the
recruitment and retention of qualified public safety officers in
America; establish the value communities place on the contributions of
those willing to serve their communities in potentially dangerous
circumstances; and offer peace of mind to men and women seeking careers
in public safety, yet there remain agencies that still do not know
about the PSOB program.
While many law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other first
responders know about the PSOB program, there are still too many
agencies surprised to learn that the program has existed for more than
30 years. PSOB is committed to getting the word out to all who should
know, through frequent presentations and trainings at national,
regional, state, and local meetings and conferences. Recent
presentations have ranged from briefing working committees at the
International Association of Chiefs of Police and National Sheriffs'
Association Annual Conferences, to half day training sessions at state
Fire Chiefs Conferences, the National Troopers Coalition, and the
C.O.P.S. and NFFF Annual Conferences and related trainings.
In addition to already highlighting the PSOB program in every Justice
Today, BJA's e-communication to more than 10,000 law enforcement and
justice subscribers, PSOB communication and marketing plans for 2009 -
2010 include requesting space to run a standard PSOB message and
contact information in all major law enforcement and firefighter
association and trade journals and related websites. The PSOB Office
will also update PSOB materials and conduct a second mass mailing of
its PSOB Information Kits to 60,000 agencies and related partners.
If you have any questions regarding this response, you or your staff
may contact Maureen Henneberg, Director, Office of Audit, Assessment,
and Management, on (202) 6l6-3282.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Mary Lou Leary:
Acting Assistant Attorney General:
cc: Beth McGarry:
Deputy Assistant Attorney for Operations and Management:
James H. Burch, II:
Acting Director:
Bureau of Justice Assistance:
Marcia K. Paull:
Chief Financial Officer:
Maureen Henneberg:
Director:
Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management:
Richard P. Theis:
Audit Liaison:
Department of Justice:
[End of section]
Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments:
GAO Contact:
Andrew Sherrill, Director, (202) 512-7215 or sherrilla@gao.gov:
Staff Acknowledgments:
Meeta Engle, Assistant Director; Danielle Giese, Analyst-in-Charge;
Nora Boretti; Jessica Gray; Jennifer McDonald; Wati Kadzai; and Paula
Moore made significant contributions to this report. In addition, Roger
Thomas, Sheila R. McCoy, and Sarah Cornetto provided legal assistance;
Stuart Kaufman, Justin Fisher, and Beverly Ross provided methodological
assistance; and Charles Willson assisted in report development.
[End of section]
Related GAO Products:
Federal Compensation Programs: Perspectives on Four Programs for
Individuals Injured by Exposure to Harmful Substances. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-628T. Washington, D.C.: April 1,
2008.
Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for Military Personnel and
Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program Provisions and
Individual Circumstance. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4]. Washington, D.C.: April 7, 2006.
Federal Compensation Programs: Perspectives on Four Programs.
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-230]. Washington, D.C.:
November 18, 2005.
Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1]. Washington, D.C.:
November 1999.
Executive Guide: Effectively Implementing the Government Performance
and Results Act. [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO/GGD-96-118]. Washington, D.C.: June
1996.
[End of section]
Footnotes:
[1] Pub. L. No. 94-430.
[2] For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
[3] Pub. L. No. 108-182.
[4] According to DOJ officials, there was no backlog of Hometown Heroes-
related claims as of September 2009.
[5] As originally enacted in 1976, the PSOB program offered death and
disability benefits. Education benefits were later added through the
Federal Law Enforcement Dependents Assistance Act of 1996. Pub. L. No.
104-238.
[6] Since October 15, 1988, the benefit has been adjusted each year on
October 1 to reflect the percentage of change in the Consumer Price
Index.
[7] The law identifies two exceptions to this rule--the Federal
Employees Compensation Act (5 U.S.C. § 8191) and the D.C. Retirement
and Disability Act of September 1, 1916 (D.C. Code Ann.§ 4-622).
[8] According to FEMA officials, many of these officers are usually
state and local officials who are temporarily under contract with FEMA
during a disaster.
[9] Eligible survivors include the officer's spouse, children,
surviving parents, or an individual designated by the officer on his or
her most recently executed life insurance policy or designation of
beneficiary on file. The PSOB statute establishes a hierarchy for
determining who among these types of survivors will receive all or
portions of the benefit.
[10] "Injury," for these purposes, is defined as a traumatic physical
wound caused by external force, chemicals, electricity, climatic
conditions, infectious disease, radiation, virus, or bacteria, but does
not include any occupational disease or any condition of the body
caused or occasioned by stress or strain.
[11] By statute, PSOB's definition of "disabled" differs from Social
Security's definition of "disability" for its Disability Insurance (DI)
and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. To be eligible for
disability benefits under these Social Security Administration
programs, individuals must be unable to engage in any substantial
gainful activity because of a medically determinable physical or mental
impairment that can be expected to result in death or last continuously
for at least 12 months.
[12] The PSOB Office provides checklists of required documentation for
death and disability claims online, but a checklist of required
documentation for education claims is provided to claimants only after
the PSOB program has verified that the claimants are eligible.
[13] Any denial of benefits that is not subject to a request for a
hearing officer determination constitutes a final agency determination.
[14] Death claims are sent for medical review at the discretion of PSOB
officials based on the evidence provided by the survivor, or the
survivor's agency, to support the claim. In its March 2008 report,
DOJ's Office of the Inspector General noted that death claims
associated with the Hometown Heroes Act were often sent for medical
review. According to DOJ officials, this review satisfies the law's
requirement regarding the review of "competent medical evidence to the
contrary."
[15] Pub. L. No. 103-62.
[16] Pub. L. No. 97-255.
[17] GAO, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government, [2]
For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
[2] For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
[2] For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
[2] For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1 (Washington, D.C.: November 1999) and Executive
Guide: Effectively Implementing the Government Performance and Results
Act, [2] For more information about disability benefits available to
public safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts
for Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by
Program Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
[2] For more information about disability benefits available to public
safety officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for
Military Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
GAO/GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: June 1996). OMB, Preparation and
Submission of Strategic Plans, Annual Performance Plans, and Annual
Program Performance Reports, Circular A-11 (Washington, D.C.: June
2005) and Management's Responsibility for Internal Control, Circular A-
123 (Washington, D.C.: December 2004).
[18] PSOB officials stated that it is rare for education claimants to
be ineligible. In the few cases in which this occurs, claimants may not
receive PSOB education benefits because they may have received other
public or governmental educational assistance that is in excess of what
they would be eligible to receive from the PSOB program or they may
have earned less than a cumulative C average for each of the most
recent two consecutive terms. In these situations, PSOB notifies
claimants that they are ineligible for education benefits at that time,
but that they may still apply to receive education benefits throughout
their eligible time frame. However, PSOB does not initiate education
claims unless claimants meet eligibility requirements, and therefore we
found that all education claims from fiscal year 2006 to 2008 are
closed, approved, and paid.
[19] While a majority of the 20 closed disability claims in our sample
indicated that the claim was denied, we cannot reliably estimate the
percentage of all disability claims that were denied.
[20] According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, more law enforcement
officers have died because of work-related injuries than firefighting
and prevention workers from 2005 to 2007.
[21] For the date that the PSOB Office began to process the claim, we
used the following dates in the claim file documentation. For death and
disability claims, we used either the date stamped or written on the
claim form signifying PSOB's receipt of claim documentation, the date
that the online claim form was printed by the PSOB Office, or the date
noted in correspondence between the claimant and a benefits specialist
documenting the receipt of a claim. For education claims, we used the
date that PSOB sent the claimant an initiation letter explaining how to
apply for benefits after the agency officials verified the claimant was
eligible to apply. For all types of claims, these dates represent the
initiation of a claim for our purposes but do not represent the date
that the PSOB Office received all the necessary documentation to allow
it to complete the process.
[22] Ranges of time are based on sample data and represent the upper
and lower bounds of the 95 percent confidence intervals for the mean
length of time.
[23] PSOB officials also said that they include information on
education benefits in every death and disability notification letter to
approved claimants, along with a copy of the educational assistance
fact sheet.
[24] The PSOB Office requires a toxicology report or a statement signed
by the head of the public safety agency or the medical examiner
explaining why no analysis was performed.
[25] According to the PSOB director, BJA anticipates hiring staff for
two types of positions: (1) outreach specialists to perform proactive
customer service outreach to survivors and agencies, capture critical
data on each claim in the PSOB case management system, and scan
incoming documents to maintain an e-copy of each file, and (2) customer
call specialists to staff a call line from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to
7:00 p.m.
[26] For more information, see GAO, Executive Guide: Effectively
Implementing the Government Performance and Results Act, [2] For more
information about disability benefits available to public safety
officers, see GAO, Disability Benefits: Benefit Amounts for Military
Personnel and Civilian Public Safety Officers Vary by Program
Provisions and Individual Circumstances, [hyperlink,
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-4] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 7, 2006).
GAO/GGD-96-118 (Washington, D.C.: June 1996). While GPRA is applicable
to the department or agency level, performance goals and measures are
important management tools applicable to all levels of an agency,
including the program, project, or activity level, consistent with
leading management practices and internal controls related to
performance monitoring.
[27] OJP officials explained that payment programs are those programs
for which the recipient is paid an amount of money but is not required
to demonstrate expenses. These are distinct from reimbursement
programs, in which recipients are required to demonstrate their
expenses before receiving payment.
[28] As mentioned earlier, Congress has appropriated sums as necessary
for PSOB death benefits, and the largest portion of the PSOB caseload
from fiscal years 2006 to 2008 consisted of the claims for these
benefits.
[29] According to the PSOB program official, in June 2009, the program
staff were using PSOB Workflow to process all death and disability
claims. In July 2009, the contractor developing that system finished
the education component of the system. Meanwhile, the PSOB Office
continues to use paper files in conjunction with the electronic case
management system.
[30] According to an Iowa program official, with Iowa's Peace Officers'
Retirement, Accident and Disability System, the children receive a
monthly benefit amount equal to 6 percent of monthly earnable
compensation payable to an active member having the rank of senior
patrol officer of the state patrol.
[31] According to Louisiana volunteer firefighter representatives,
volunteer fire departments pay very little into the workers'
compensation system, resulting in limited benefits for volunteer
firefighters.
[32] According to the State Retirement and Pension System of Maryland,
Local Fire and Police Pension System program handbook, some police and
firefighters working for local governments in Maryland may also be
enrolled in the state Pension System for Local Fire Fighters and Police
Officers, which offers death and disability benefits. However, new
membership enrollment for this program ended in January 2005. Volunteer
firefighters and paramedics are not eligible to participate in this
system.
[33] According to state and local officials, the New York state
workers' compensation program excludes New York City police officers
and firefighters who are covered under provisions of the New York State
General Municipal Law. Uniformed police officers and firefighters in
other municipalities may also be excluded. State and local officials
told us that these officers are covered under state law, which provides
cash benefits and medical payments by the cities or municipalities
after a line-of-duty injury or illness. According to state, local, and
union officials, as a result of these laws, the state and localities
share the responsibility of the costs of compensating the officers or
their survivors with the goal of providing 100 percent wage
compensation after a line-of-duty death or permanent and total
disability. The officials stated that the officer or his or her
beneficiary will also receive health care. The information in this
section describes the state pension portion of the benefit.
[End of section]
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