Police, Firefighter Survivors Wait Years For Death Benefit

It's been almost five years since a brush fire pickup lunged forward and crushed volunteer firefighter Leonard Murray, killing him. But the Indiana man's family continues to wait for an answer from the federal government about whether they will or won't get a one-time death benefit meant to help the survivors of fallen public safety officers.

Boulder County, Colo., sheriff’s deputy Stuart Holt with 

his daughter Samantha Holt taken two years ago. 

The family awaits a $340,000 payment.

Hundreds of families have waited for a year — and sometimes several years — for action from the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Programs set up in 1976 to help out families of police, firefighters and other emergency workers who die in the line of duty or after severely stressful events on the job.

A USA TODAY Media Network investigation, including a review of almost 1,500 claims filed by families since 2009, found the program mired in delays for more than a decade despite millions of dollars spent on outside audits and efforts to hire extra legal help to speed up processing languishing claims. As of August, about 750 families were caught waiting for answers on their claims for the one-time payment of about $340,000.

To measure the scope of delays, USA TODAY obtained from the Justice Department the tracking records for 1,499 claims over five years and found:

In more than 900 cases the agency closed as of April, the average time to review a case and make a decision was 391 days, which is longer than the agency's goal of one year. In fact, 42% of those cases last more than a year. Almost 100 families waited more than two years, and 25 waited three-plus years.

In more than 500 cases that were still listed as pending as of this spring, 71% of survivors already had been waiting more than a year for a decision. Almost 200 families had been waiting for at least two years and four dozen families had been waiting at least four years.

Read the rest of the story HERE and view related videos below:

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.