Backfill: PPL agrees to $162M wage-theft settlement covering up to 200,000 CDPAP aides; judge grants preliminary approval

Public Partnerships LLC — the single fiscal intermediary the Hochul administration selected to run CDPAP in 2025 — agreed to pay $162M to settle a class-action wage-theft suit, one of the largest wage-related payouts in New York history. Average payout is roughly $700 per aide, about a week's pay. At least $25M compensates for deductions taken for a mandatory Leading Edge Administrators health plan that PPL later discontinued. PPL denies liability; the settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing. A federal judge in EDNY granted preliminary approval on July 1, 2026; payments may not reach workers until early 2027. Separate from, but arising out of the same CDPAP transition as, the DOJ fraud suit already tracked.