Fill out the survey about how the extra Welfare Fund money should be spent!

If you had $75,000,000 to support the healthcare needs of your family and the families of your fellow union members, how would you spend it? 

After a careful analysis of the UFT Welfare Fund’s finances based on a recent audit obtained by FOIL from the NYC comptroller's office that we are publishing for the first time here today, we UFT members found that our welfare fund has additional income that it is not spending, and reserves well beyond what is financially necessary. The Welfare Fund has consistently been growing its reserves with a large annual surplus (income above and beyond its expenses, for a welfare fund it is not called “profit”), averaging growth of $75 million each year over the last 5 years. 

We do not need extra reserves: the NYC Comptroller recommends that welfare funds of our size hold twice their annual income as a fallback, but the close to billion dollars held by the fund is already millions above that amount. 

This  $75 million that is being stockpiled is equivalent to $375 for each UFT member - we believe that this excess could be used to drastically improve the lives of UFT members.

It could pay for much needed dental care, or be directed to further expand optical benefits, or even used to reimburse copayments for members.  Please share your input on how it should be spent in this member survey.

Thus far, this kind of detailed information about the welfare fund has not been available to members—the UFT has only published an annual report in the back pages of the New York Teacher once a year that only divulged top-line information available elsewhere. The lack of transparency only increases questions and confusions in the membership. Below is information about how the welfare fund spends its money  - mostly on prescription drugs ($140 million), unsurprisingly, while the payouts for dental ($81 million), optical ($7 million)  and hearing ($4 million) are comparatively small. Of course these numbers will increase slightly with the recent expansion of benefits rolled out during the most recent UFT election season. But imagine what we could do if we stopped stockpiling money and spent some of it on benefits! $75M annually would almost double dental benefits.

Using this surplus to increase members’ welfare fund benefits would improve members' lives. While we welcome the increase from biannual to annual coverage of optical benefits, we believe there is much more that must be done with our surplus. Dental care is an essential part of maintaining our health and yet many dentists do not accept UFT’s dental plan due to low reimbursement rates. One way our welfare fund could improve members’ lives would be to increase its reimbursement rates so that higher quality, more conveniently located dentists were in-network. Members frequently describe horror stories in which they are surprised with hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars for simple yet essential procedures like crowns. If we used 2024’s $28m surplus on dental benefits alone by increasing maximum allowances on even simple procedures we could see an increase in the number of in-network dentists and a decrease in the type of surprise dental bills that can disrupt a family’s livelihood.

Our analysis revealed that it wasn’t only dental benefits that could be improved by spending more of the welfare fund’s surplus. In 2024, the welfare fund left nearly $13 million of the city’s parental leave contributions unspent, and the year before nearly $16 million. A parent’s time with a newborn is priceless. Our welfare fund could use its surplus to expand the number of weeks parents have to spend with their child. Even one additional week of parental leave would be cherished by parents. With our current surplus it’s possible. 

Improvements in dental, parental, optical and other essential forms of care covered by the UFT Welfare Fund are all possibilities with its immense surplus. As we see cost of living increases across the country, our union should be the first line of defense protecting our members and their families.

We call on UFT officials to listen to rank and file members’ concerns, and with their voices as guidance, use the welfare fund’s surplus to improve members’ lives. 

Fill out the survey about how the extra Welfare Fund money should be spent!

Sample tables from audit below - see full audit here: