(NY) Injured workers find no relief in reform

[Omaha Steve]

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=ALBANY&storyID=582521&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=4/20/2007

Injured workers find no relief in reform
Higher payments in workers' compensation system not retroactive

By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Friday, April 20, 2007

When Frederick Curtis heard New York had reformed its workers' compensation system, he thought he had reason to celebrate.

Curtis has collected $215 a week for almost three decades after receiving a concussion while working as a guard at New York City's Rikers Island jail.

But when he called the Workers' Compensation Board on Wednesday to ask about his increase, Curtis got the same answer that thousands of other people have heard in recent weeks: all those much-ballyhooed changes apply only to those injured after July 1, which is when the reforms are scheduled to take effect.

"I am not entitled to any increase at all," Curtis said, adding that he has difficulty making ends meet on his workers' comp payment, augmented by a $960-a-month Social Security disability check.

"I can't afford this," said Curtis, who now lives in Norfolk, Va. "I can't afford living."

FULL story at link.

[katsy]

1. How many people, living in poverty, do you think say this:

"I can't afford living."

The government knows this. They've kept the numbers for those living in poverty artificially low so people can't qualify for aid. They would like the poor to diisappear. Die. Go Away. Living is for trust fund babies.

Thanks Omaha Steve. I read every one of your posts.

This one makes me :cry: