State pension check delay in January explained

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

The post office now knows why it was so late in delivering thousands of New York state pension checks to waiting retirees in January.

An internal review released today shows the checks were put in with the bulk mail instead of first-class mail at an Albany processing and distribution center. But they never left the state, as was first thought.

Some of the 60,000 pension checks issued Dec. 30 took more than two weeks to reach their destinations.

The audit by the Postal Service’s Inspector General’s office says poor internal controls caused the checks to be mishandled. It found that employees weren’t adequately trained to use a color-code system used to make sure the mail moves quickly.

The post office says the problems have been corrected.