Characteristics of Disabled- Worker Beneficiaries With Workmen’s Compensation Offset

A SMALL NUMBER of the one and one-half million disabled workers who receive monthly cash benefits under the Social Security Act have also been awarded periodic disability benefits or lump-sum payments under a State or Federal workmen’s compensation program. To meet the definition of disability in the social security program, the persons involved in this benefit overlap must have a severe disability of extended duration, and in order to have qualified for workmen’s compensation their disability must involve a medical condition arising from their employment. The 1966 Social Security Survey of the Noninstitutionalized Disabled Adults found that 3 percent of the disabled-worker beneficiaries aged 18-64 were also receiving workmen’s compensation benefits.’ Through the overlapping of benefits from these two social insurance programs it would be possible for the combined benefits of some workers to exceed the amount of the wages they earned before becoming disabled. To prevent excessive wage replacement, the 1965 amendments to the Social Security Act provided for reduction of the social security benefits when workmen’s compensation periodic benefits are also payable. A history of the offset provision is presented in the next column. The offset is’ applied when combined benefits exceed 80 percent of predisability earnings. When the amount of the social security benefits (to the worker and any dependents) exceeds 80 percent of his earnings, that amount becomes the offset limit. In effect, the disabled person never receives