Massachusetts is one of the 15 states in which public employees don’t pay into Social Security and don’t collect it. People who contributed to Social Security while working in the private sector then went into the public sector, lose as much as 55 percent of their Social Security benefit if they are also collecting a public pension.

Social Security paid disability benefits to more than 9 million people in 2008, about 90 percent of them were considered disabled workers. Mental disorders was the diagnosis for about a third of the people considered unable to work.

From June 2003 through  June 2008, the rate of accidental disability retirements among State Police was 27  percent, or 90 out of 335 retirements.

Public employee pensions in Massachusetts increase by a maximum of 3 percent on the first $12,000 of a retirement allowance each year. That’s $360 per year.