Thomas Saccone v. Board of Trustees of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System (071841)

In this appeal, we review whether the disabled son of a retired member of the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System (PFRS) may have his survivors’ benefits paid into a first-party special needs trust (SNT) created for him under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1396p(d)(4)(A). We hold that he may and reverse the contrary administrative action by the PFRS Board of Trustees (Board).

The Board’s strict view of how to implement the word “child” in the survivors’ benefits statute when dealing with the circumstances of a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) eligible disabled child of a PFRS retiree would have forced…