Teachers' pension fund slashes benefits; demands retired aides pay back thousands'Very cruel,' action affects 183 retirees

Posted Wednesday, August 5, 2026 2:35 pm

BY HARPER FREEMAN

Anthony Delgardio had been retired and earning accident disability pension benefits tied to his time as a school paraprofessional for over a decade when he got a phone call from the Teachers’ Retirement System June 8 informing him that his monthly payments would soon be cut in half. TRS had been mistakenly overpaying him for years, the voice on the other end of the line told him, and not only would his monthly benefits be reduced from around $2,000 to around $1,000, but Delgardio would have to pay back $37,000, the total he had been overcompensated in the prior three years.  

"I was just in shock,” Delgardio told The Chief. “I thought it might be fraud." 

But in the days following the call, Delgardio received a letter in the mail from TRS containing much of the same details that he had heard on the phone and learned that other retirees too had received identical devastating news.  

In total, 183 retired school paraprofessionals earning accident disability pension benefits have had their pension allowances cut in half and are being asked to repay three years of overpayment, according to the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. TRS has been paying the retired paraprofessionals two-thirds of their final average salaries as pension allowances for more than 15 years, when, under state law, the retirees are owed just one-third of their salary, a mistake TRS chalked up to a calculation error.

Jeff Goldberg, a longtime labor lawyer that many of the retirees have turned to in confusion, said that state law is clear on the issue.

“Unfortunately, paraprofessionals that received workers compensation are excluded from the statute granting two-thirds pension,” Goldberg told the Chief, just as he did retirees who sought his help. “The pension system, which has billions of dollars, has decided there's a mistake on their part." 

Some retirees have pledged to appeal TRS’ decision, but according to Goldberg it will take a legal change to at the state level save the 183 retirees’ pensions. TRS could also put the change on hold or retract its ask for three years of repayment, he said.  

“It's very unfair to pick on these elderly and disabled retirees who have been getting the two-thirds pension,” said Goldberg, who’s been practicing law for nearly 50 years. "I've been around for a long time and seen many things that pensions have done. This seems very unusual and very cruel in terms of what they're trying to do to these people." 

A representative for TRS's public information office said in an email that the retirees' allowances were "calculated incorrectly due to statutory misinterpretation."

"We deeply regret the error and the hardship that will result for the affected retirees," the representative said.

They also shifted some of the blame onto the city directly.

"TRS was advised by the New York City Law Department that we are required by law to correct calculation errors including the amount of future retirement benefit payments for these retirees," the representative said in the email. "TRS is doing everything possible within our legal responsibilities and fiduciary obligations to reduce the impact on our members. Our cost recovery process is limited to three years of overpayments regardless of how long the retiree was overpaid, and each retiree is able to appeal the cost recovery due to financial hardship or other factors."

A spokesperson for the Law Department declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Comptroller Mark Levine, the steward of the city’s five pension funds, deferred comment to TRS.

‘I'm devastated financially’ 

Kathy Tiseo, like many retired paraprofessionals who receive accident disability pensions, is physically unable to work. Now that her benefits are being reduced to $727 a month and is being pushed by TRS to pay back $29,000, she doesn’t know how she’ll make ends meet. 

"I never thought that this could happen,” she said. “I know I'm going to be short next month." 

Delgardio too said he cannot work due to the lasting effects of a concussion he suffered from a blow to the head while on the job, and that the benefits reduction will likely cause him to lose his home, the one thing he’s been able to hold onto through years of physical and mental struggles. 

“I'm devastated financially,” he said. "I haven’t been able to buy food for the last three weeks. I haven't been able to put gas in my car." 

The irate retirees have turned to retiree organizations for help and have created a petition calling on the United Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers to push TRS to suspend the benefit reduction, for an amendment to the 2002 law to enshrine protections for paraprofessionals and more.

Under the 2002 state law that was supported by teachers’ unions, teachers on a disability pension were guaranteed two-thirds retirement benefit. But paraprofessionals, who make far less than teachers, were not offered the same benefit. 

“We have successfully worked with TRS to lessen the impact of the agency’s error on our members, but there is more work to do,” Alison Gendar, a spokesperson for the UFT, said in a statement. “We are committed to working through legislative and legal channels to make sure that our members are not further harmed.”  

‘They are ruining people’s lives’ 

Active paraprofessionals have been a key focus for the UFT the last two years, and union leadership successfully lobbied the City Council to pass a bill granting a $10,000 bonus to paraprofessionals, who have a starting salary under $32,000. The retired paraprofessionals sit at the intersection of two areas of the union where UFT president Michael Mulgrew lost support internal union elections in 2024, when insurgent candidates ousted the Mulgrew-aligned leadership of the Retired Teachers chapter and took eight seats in the paraprofessionals chapter as well. 

Arthur Goldstein, the vice chair of the retired teacher's chapter in the UFT, said the AFT and UFT need to step in and force TRS to stop the clawback and push for a change to state law.  

"This is horrible, it's unconscionable, it's an outrage,” he said. “How could you do that to someone on a fixed income? If they could do it to them, they could do it to me. They could do it to anyone.” 

Edith Housni, who worked as a paraprofessional for over 20 years and retired in 2022, said after receiving her benefit reduction that she regrets ever working in the field.  

“They are ruining people's lives,” she said. “They want us to be homeless in our older age. It's not fair. It's unacceptable."