Workplace Injuries and Receipt of Benefits From Workers' Compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance

Area of Science:

• Public health
• Social insurance policy
• Economics of disability

Background:

• Workers' compensation (WC) provides benefits for work-related injuries.
• Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) offers benefits for long-term disabilities.
• Coordination between WC and SSDI is intended to prevent benefit duplication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the linkage between workers receiving WC for permanent disabling injuries and SSDI.
• To determine if the Social Security Administration (SSA) appropriately offsets WC payments against SSDI benefits.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Health and Retirement Study for WC benefit receipt.
• Linked WC data with Social Security Administration (SSA) data on WC and SSDI recipients.
• Analyzed descriptive statistics to assess benefit offset practices.

Main Results:

• A significant portion of WC benefit recipients appear to have missing WC data within SSA records.
• The frequency of SSDI benefit reductions due to WC offsets is unexpectedly low.
• Potential under-offsetting of WC benefits against SSDI.

Conclusions:

• Inconsistencies in data linkage between WC and SSA may exist.
• WC benefits for permanent disabling injuries may not be consistently or appropriately offset against SSDI.
• This could lead to a financial shift of workplace injury costs onto the SSDI program.