Workers' Compensation

This report discusses how workers' compensation (WC) benefits affect benefit programs run by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other agencies. GAO (1) examines the effects of WC benefits on SSA programs, focusing on SSA's progress in administering the WC offset provision; (2) discusses other federal programs whose benefit payments are also affected by WC benefits; and (3) discusses ways to address federal benefit payment errors related to workers' compensation. GAO found that SSA's administration of the WC offset provision continues to be undermined by the lack of reliable information on WC benefits received by Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries which causes some beneficiaries to be overpaid and others to be underpaid. No national reporting system identifies WC beneficiaries. Instead, SSA largely relies on applicants and beneficiaries to report their receipt of WC benefits and any changes that occur in the benefit amounts--an approach that makes it very difficult for SSA to make accurate benefit payments. Other federal agencies also need WC information to make accurate benefit payments and face similar difficulties identifying WC beneficiaries. Like SSA, Medicare relies on its applicants and beneficiaries to self-report WC benefits and is vulnerable to payment errors when they do not. In addition, food stamp programs and Section 8 rental housing assistance consider WC benefits as income or assets, and an inability to obtain benefit information could affect the accuracy of benefit payments. There are ways to address the difficulty of reliably identifying WC beneficiaries. However, the fragmented structure of WC programs and the lack of federal involvement in state WC programs defy a simple solution.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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