If you receive both Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) benefits and workers’ compensation, you may be able to structure your workers’ compensation payments to minimize the impact that these benefits will have on your SSDI benefits. If you think this might be an option for you, we recommend that you speak with an expert at a Tulsa Social Security Disability law firm.
Often times, rather than paying workers’ compensation indefinitely, a company will offer a worker a one-time settlement to close the case. When the worker accepts this settlement, how the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) considers this payout has an impact on the amount of SSDI benefits the worker can receive. For example, the SSA may take the settlement lump-sum and use that to offset all of your SSDI benefits until your settlement money is gone. For example, if your settlement is for $100,000 and you had been receiving $2,000 a month in worker’s comp, the SSA would continue to figure $2,000 a month for the next 50 months until the $100,000 is gone. $2,000 a month from worker’s comp would likely reduce your monthly SSDI benefits to zero until your settlement money is gone.
The SSA permits workers a way around this, though. Workers can avoid negative financial consequences with workers’ compensation lump-sum payouts by working with their employers to craft a settlement agreement that specifies how to treat the lump-sum. The agreement can specify that the lump-sum is intended to replace the worker’s wages for the rest of his or her work life, which would then spread out the settlement money further on a monthly basis, enabling SSDI benefits to continue.
Have you received a workers’ comp settlement while also receiving SSDI benefits? How did you deal with the settlement and its effect on your disability benefits?
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security Disability lawyers
