Disability Benefits before age 62 are not entitled to a COLA (Cost of Linving) increase in benefits, a “triennial determination.” The Court reasoned that the 1980 NJ statute allowing for a “reverse offset,” one in which the employer takes the Social Security Disability Offset, also permits NJ law to pre-empt Federal law that mandates such a recalculation.
Showing posts with label Reverse Offset. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reverse Offset. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Supplement Benefit Bill for Surviving Dependents of Essential Coronavirus Workers Passed by NJ Legislature
The NJ Legislature has now passed S2476. It provides supplemental benefit payments to the dependents of essential employees who died in the course of employment due to the contraction of coronavirus disease 2019.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Governor Conditionally Vetoes NJ Supplemental Benefits Bill
The NJ supplemental workers' compensation bill has been conditional vetoed by NJ Governor Murphy. In the conditional veto message the Governor notes that the legislation's unintended consequences would jeopardize NJ's "reverse offset," shift the cost responsibility and not provide an economic benefit to the injured workers. The NJ Senate then took action.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Trump Administration Proposes Elimination of the Reverse Offset
The Trump Administration in its proposed FY 2020 Budget has proposed elimination of the workers’ compensation reverse offset. The elimination will act as a cost saving measure and will level the playing field for all workers’ compensation system throughout the United States.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Totally Injured Workers Maybe Getting an Increase in Benefits
The proposed Trump Administration 2019 Budget (p. 115) may allow NJ workers’ compensation beneficiaries to receive an increase in benefits. By eliminating the Social Security “reverse offset,” totally and permanently injured NJ workers will receive a triennial annual COLA increase.
“The Budget includes a re-proposal to eliminate reverse offsets in fifteen states where Workers' Compensation (WC) benefits and temporary disability insurance benefits (TDI) are offset instead of DI benefits."
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The First Social Program Bankruptcy is Upon Us
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| The Hon. David Langham |
In May, the Fiscal Times reported that Social Security Disability is in financial trouble. Hardly news, that has been heard for years and has been either ignored or given lip service. No real solutions have been brought to the table. Unfortunately, in America issues with disability programs like Social Security and workers' compensation tend to get attention when there is a crisis.
What is news is that the sky is perhaps falling more rapidly than they predicted. The Fiscal Times says that the SSDI cash flow will run dry in 2016. Their prediction leads to the conclusion that this is no longer a problem that can be kicked down the road to the next group of elected representatives. The insolvency will either be dealt with or the repercussions felt in the next Congress.
According to the Fiscal Times in May 2014, eleven million Americans are receiving Social Security Disability (SSDI). According to Census.gov the U.S. population is about 318 million, so about three percent of the population is receiving SSDI.
The average SSDI recipient is drawing...
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Related articles
Florida's Pace is Impressive (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Detroit's Bankruptcy Signals a Failure in Disability Compensation Programs in the US (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Its Déjà Vu All Over Again (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Constitutional Challenges New and Old, From Florida to Oklahoma (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Florida Workers' Compensation FIlings Continue to Decrease (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Social Security raise to be among lowest in years
Social Security payments are tightly kinked to workers' compensation disability payments. When there are increases in benefits, some "reverse offset" states are liberal in passing along the adjustments to injured workers'. The State of New Jersey does NOT pass along the benefit increase and the workers' compensation insurance company does NOT increase the disability award payment to the injured workers. Today's post is shared from the dallasnews.org.
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January.
Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of roughly 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Next year's raise will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven't gone up much in the past year. The exact size of the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, won't be known until the Labor Department releases the inflation report for September. That was supposed to happen Wednesday, but the report was delayed indefinitely because of the partial government shutdown. The COLA is usually announced in October to give Social Security and other benefit programs time to adjust January payments. The Social Security Administration has given no indication that raises would be delayed because of the shutdown, but advocates for... |
Friday, April 5, 2013
Obama Administration Proposed Social Budget Cut Places More Stress on Workers' Compensation
It has been reported that the Obama Administration will soon propose budgetary cuts in social welfare programs. Those cuts may produce further economic stress on the nation's financially beleaguered workers' compensation system.
A reduction or rationing of medical care through Medicare will remove the safety net available to
injured workers who have been denied workers' compensation benefits initially and are delayed in the administrative/adjudicatory process.
In those states when there is a "reverse offset." the workers' compensation insurance carrier takes an offset when combined benefits exceed the ACE (Average Current Earning) before the onset of lost time, reduction of COLA (Cost of Livening Assessment) the carriers will be required to pay more dollars.
"President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say."
Click here to read the complete article: "Obama Budget Reviving Offer of Compromise With Cuts" NYT
A reduction or rationing of medical care through Medicare will remove the safety net available to
In those states when there is a "reverse offset." the workers' compensation insurance carrier takes an offset when combined benefits exceed the ACE (Average Current Earning) before the onset of lost time, reduction of COLA (Cost of Livening Assessment) the carriers will be required to pay more dollars.
"President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say."
Click here to read the complete article: "Obama Budget Reviving Offer of Compromise With Cuts" NYT
Friday, August 3, 2012
Coordinating Workers Compensation & Social Security: The Inequity Among States Continues
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| Source: National Academy of Social Insurance |
A recently published report by the National Academy of Social Insurance reflects that a "reverse offset" (coordination of benefits) still continues in 15 states. In reverse offset states, the insurance carrier gains the financial benefit of the coordination of benefits and NOT the Federal Social Security system.
"If a worker becomes eligible for both workers’ compensation and Social Security disability insurance benefits, one or both of the programs will limit benefits to avoid making excessive payments relative to the worker’s past earnings. The Social Security amendments of 1965 require that Social Security disability benefits be reduced
15 (or “offset”) so that the combined totals of workers’ compensation and Social Security disability benefits do not exceed 80 percent of the workers’ prior earnings. 16 Some states, however, had established reverse offset laws prior to the 1965 legislation, whereby workers’ compensation payments are reduced if the worker receives Social Security disability benefits. Legislation in 1981 eliminated the states’ option to adopt reverse offset laws, but the 15 states that already had such laws in place were exempted. 17
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15 The portion of workers’ compensation benefits that offset (reduce) SSDI benefits are subject to federal income tax (IRC section 86(d)(3)).
16 The cap remains at 80 percent of the worker’s average earnings before disability, except that, in the relatively few cases when Social Security disability benefits for the worker and dependents exceed 80 percent of prior earnings, the benefits are not reduced below the Social Security amount. This cap also applies to coordination between Social Security disability insurance and other public disability benefits (PDB) derived from jobs not covered by Social Security, such as state or local government jobs where the governmental employer has chosen not to cover its employees under Social Security.
17 States with reverse offset laws are: Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.
More Articles About The Offset
Feb 26, 2011
A NJ Court of Appeals has ruled that the reverse-offset permitted under Federal law was allowed to be asserted by an insurance carrier years after an original workers' compensation judgment was entered. Even though the ...
Dec 01, 2009
Social Security (SSA) has been subsidizing a select group of States since 1981. The workers' compensation insurance carriers in only those select States are permitted to take a credit against SSA payments. The US Congress ...
Mar 23, 2008
In 1984 Congress amended The Social Security Amendments of 1956 and required that workers' compensation benefits were to be offset against the federal Social Security disability insurance benefit. In 1985 the offset was ...
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