Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 7, 1994                   TAG: 9407070107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AIDS VIRUS CAN'T STOP BENEFITS

Under an out-of-court settlement signed Tuesday, Peter Rosetti Jr.'s wish will be met: Several thousand people infected with the AIDS virus will be allowed to reapply for benefits they may have been improperly denied.

The settlement stems from a federal lawsuit Rosetti, an electrician from south Philadelphia, filed three years ago. It affects an estimated 2,800 people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands whose claims for Social Security benefits were denied from March 22, 1991, to July 2, 1993.

Under the settlement, those people are entitled to have their claims re-evaluated under more liberal Social Security criteria for AIDS-related disability the Clinton administration adopted last July.

``It makes me feel very good, very proud of him,'' said Rosetti's mother, Marie, after Tuesday's news conference announcing the settlement. She said the family members who cared for Rosetti around the clock in a hospital bed in their south Philadelphia row house regretted that he did not live to savor his victory.

It is unknown how many of the 2,800 potential beneficiaries still are alive and how many might qualify for retroactive payments.

Lawyers for Community Legal Services Inc., which has waged a protracted legal battle on behalf of the plaintiffs, said they were ``very pleased'' with the settlement, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

``At long last, many `Rosetti' class members who were improperly denied benefits will be receiving the back money they are due,'' said James M. Lafferty, supervising attorney at the legal aid service.

Rosetti, who died May 19, was forced to give up his job as an electrician after he became disabled with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The Social Security Administration initially denied his claims for disability benefits, prompting him to file the class action lawsuit.

Lafferty had no estimate of how much money each potential beneficiary might qualify for during the 28-month period covered in the settlement. The minimum Social Security benefit is $468 a month, he said.

Under the settlement, the Social Security Administration is to notify all potential beneficiaries by letter. They then will have to go to a local Social Security office to have their back claims re-evaluated.

Phil Gambino, a Social Security spokesman, estimated that the settlement would cost the government less than $1 million.

``While we believe we were following the appropriate rules during that time period, a lengthy court battle would not have been in the interests of people with HIV infection,'' Gambino said.

Of the plaintiffs, Peter Rosetti was the only one willing to have his real name used in the lawsuit.

Before last July, the Social Security Administration based its rulings about AIDS-related disability on criteria that tended to exclude women, members of minority groups and intravenous drug users with HIV, according to court briefs.

The Clinton administration expanded the criteria last July but balked at awarding retroactive benefits to those who had been denied them under the old rules.

Lafferty said he knew of only one other lawsuit against Social Security for denying benefits based on AIDS-related disability. That case, in New York, also is expected to be settled out of court, he said.