Criminals in Ohio retire with lucrative public pensions, report says

Associated Press

DAYTON

A newspaper says the public employee pension system in Ohio has allowed people who committed crimes or who were terminated for misconduct to retire on lucrative disability pensions.

The Dayton Daily News investigated parts of western Ohio and says it found high rates of disability retirement among employees who got in trouble at work, raising questions about whether all workers who get disability pensions have disabilities. That’s tough to determine because public records don’t reveal the details.

Pension officials say the funds follow the law and disability pension applicants are repeatedly evaluated.

More than 40,000 former public workers are on disability for injuries and illnesses. That’s nearly 12 percent of the retirees in the state’s public system. Pension costs for those people totaled more than $1 billion last year.