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Bernard Dr. NO Bach

Two more documents have just arrived on Andrew Stewart’s disability application. (Read the earlier post by clicking HERE). The first is a letter from the Groom Law Group and the second contains one of the most egregiously ridiculous pieces of bureaucratic doublespeak we’ve seen in years. The Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan’s Paul Scott sends what would appear as very clear direction (for most people anyway) to Dr. Bernard NO Bach and his response follows. We don’t think much more needs to be said. The documents really do speak for themselves and we’ve simply added a few highlights.

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Over the summer, the NFLPA offered a 4-month window for retired disabled players to apply or re-apply for their benefits. As many of you know, I was eventually approved for Inactive T&P (Total & Permanent) Disability benefits (but not Football Degenerative T&P benefits). We’re still continuing to file our objections to the Review Board over my original disqualification since 1983. (You can read more about this by clicking HERE and HERE.)

After a lot of foot-dragging, NFLPA Benefits Director, Paul Scott, finally sent me a letter alluding to a “Death Benefit” that many of us had apparently signed up for years ago when we took retirement. This benefit is supposed to provide those meager benefits to our surviving spouses when we die. (Read Paul Scott’s letter to me HERE.) But in spite of years and years of taking unitemized deductions for this “benefit” and even going as far as to hire AON to work out the actuarial factors for each of the players, I can’t seem to find anyone who has so much as looked at a policy or document that spells out the terms of this “benefit.”

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Sharon Hawkins applied on behalf of her husband, Wayne Hawkins, for disability benefits under the recent program that closed on July 31, 2008. (Read about the original application by clicking HERE,)

Cryptically, Wayne got disqualified. Again.

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Well, the statement for my August T&P Disability Benefit arrived in the mail today and it’s business as usual. The Benefits fund has deposited another $2,980.60 directly into my bank account and it’s another $352.73 short of the $3,333.33 that they’re supposed to be paying me (based on $40,000 ÷ 12 = $3,333.33). And there’s still absolutely no explanation on their monthly statement that tells me how they arrived at their payment or where the $352.73 went to!

Here’s a copy of that statement (you can click on the image to enlarge it):

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Wow! It always seems so incredibly hard just getting what should be a very simple answer to a really simple question. But in their usual manner, the NFLPA always manages to make things ridiculously difficult. If you recall, all I wanted to know was why I wasn’t getting the net T&P Benefits I was granted earlier last month after my application had been approved (click HERE to read the earlier post). And my attorney, John Hogan, also wrote a formal request to inquire about the discrepancy. (I don’t want to get into the discrepancy of what they REALLY should be paying me on this post.)

(Click on each image to enlarge.)

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Dear Commissioner Goodell,

After 25 years of being wrongly denied disability for my family, The Groom Law Group came up with a new type of disability (called Inactive Total & Permanent – T&P) which only pays 35% of what I am actually qualified to receive (Football Degenerative T&P).

As I’m sure you are aware, I applied for the newly-offered plan this spring just before I went in for hip replacement surgery. On June 19, 2008 I was sent a letter from Paul Scott (Benefits Coordinator for the Retirement Board) stating that I was finally awarded Inactive T&P benefits (with reluctance, I’m sure). However, there appears to be little doubt that the NFLPA has once again short-changed my family. Instead of paying a benefit of $3,333.33 a month, I have only received $2,980.60 for each of the months of April, May and June 2008 and only $606.13 for July so far (which actually represents my miserly NFLPA early retirement pension). They are short-changing my family $352.73 a month. As I’ve been on Social Security Disability since 2004, there should be absolutely no deductions or withholding whatsoever. I have written letters to both Paul Scott and Gene Upshaw asking for the calculations involved to arrive at this reduced amount but my requests continue to fall on deaf ears.

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My Disability Attorney, John Hogan, received a letter dated June 19, 2008 from Paul Scott, the Benefits Coordinator from the NFLPA’s Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan. The letter states that the Committee qualified me to receive Inactive Total & Permanent (T&P) Disability Benefits (which is supposed to amount to $40,000 a year – or $3,333.33 a month – according to the NFLPA’s published retirement benefits program) retroactive to April 1, 2008 (?!!). My request for Football Degenerative Benefits have been tabled and it is clear that all my documentation was not considered. They only looked at my favorable Social Security award in 2004 and disregarded the fact that I was wrongly denied in 1995.

Yet, Paul Scott’s letter states that my monthly benefit will be $2,980.60 with a retroactive payment of $7,123.41 to cover April, May and June which works out to $2,374.47 a month (?!!). Got that? And since they have a standing order not to take any deductions, 3 months should actually amount to $10,000, NOT $7,123.41! Sheesh!

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