With each new article I write the COVID-19 health crisis deepens within society at large and especially so within the essential personnel community. As the virus continues to progress, so to does the severity of the health conditions caused by it. It is with a heavy heart that I continue to receive notifications that workers’ lives have been lost to this dreaded virus. To all those suffering from COVID-19 please know that I am here to help in any way that I can. To those families that have lost a loved one, please accept my sincerest condolences for your loss.
To those families of fallen Public Safety Officers, I want to relay some vitally important information that many are not aware of. In 1996, the Public Safety Officers Benefit Fund, commonly called “PSOB”, was established by the federal government to compensate the families of Public Safety Officers that are killed in the line-of-duty. The PSOB program, which is run by the United States Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, issued a statement on Friday, April 10, 2020, that it allow the family’s of officers who have passed due to COVID-19 to file an application for benefits. Further, it set evidentiary parameters for proving that the officer contracted the virus while working. As long as the officer, (1) “engaged in line of duty action or activity under circumstances that indicate that it was medically possible that the officer was exposed to the virus” and (2) the officer did “contract the disease within a time-frame where it was medically possible to contract the disease from the work exposure, the officer will be deemed to have contracted COVID-19 in the line-of-duty. As such, the Public Safety Officers of New York that have paid the ultimate sacrifice for their service during this health crisis should undoubtedly meet these qualification requirements.
The PSOB will issue a one-time $365,670 benefit payment to the families of fallen officers. Additionally, the PSOB program has an Educational Assistance component as well, providing benefit payments to the children, or a widow, who is enrolled in full time higher education. Such educational assistance benefit is currently $1,248 per month of full-time attendance at an institution of higher learning.
The PSOB program is restricted to only “Public Safety Officers”, i.e. Police Officers, Firefighters, Correction Officers, Parole Officers, Probation Officers, Uniformed EMS/EMT personnel and Criminal Prosecutors.
I encourage all officers to pass this information onto the loved ones of any fallen officer’s family that they may know. I, and the entire MDASR team, are here to assist families in securing these benefits. As always, I can be directly reached at (646)831-6229 or on the MDASR App which is available in the iPhone and Google platforms. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, concerns or if you wish to file an application.
Stay safe!
Comentarios