Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Saving money by not giving it to dead people

From the Daily News:

Come to find out that when you try to save money by pulling back rent breaks for dead people... you save money. City Comptroller John Liu is out with an update of a 2011 audit from his office that found the city had given nearly $12 million in breaks to nearly 4,000 renters who didn't need them on account of having departed the mortal coil.

The comptroller's office highlighted improvements including:

* The Department of Finance investigated the deceased tenant accounts identified in the Sept. 2011 audit and retrieved a total of $9.8 million.

* DOF currently conducts monthly death matches of its database against Social Security Administration's Death Master File.

* DOF improved its handling of the SCRIE program

* DOF implemented six of seven recommendations made in the Sept. 2011 audit

* DOF now checks LexisNexis to research missing information on SCRIE applicants

* But there are still loopholes: DOF does not conduct monthly death matches against all open accounts, including for tenants who haven't renewed their leases. Therefore, the money's not always retrieved, nor is the database completely updated.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

John Liu keeps on going on and on and on and on!

But unlike the Energizer bunny...his chances for
becoming NYC's next mayor are kaput!

Thank the Lord we won't be seeing his pudgy little puss around the halls of government soon.

Bye, bye, Mr. Comptroller!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure John Liu stumbled upon this situation as he signed up these dead folks as donors and voters for his campaign.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure John Liu stumbled upon this situation as he signed up these dead folks as donors and voters for his campaign.
.......................................................
Makes sense to me!!!