Characteristics of Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries Receiving Workers' Compensation or Public Disability

Office of Policy • Office of Disability and Income Assistance PolicyResearch and Statistics NoteNo. 2008-01 January 2008Characteristics of Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries Receiving Workers’ Compensation or Public Disability Benefits Compared *With Disabled-Worker Beneficiaries Without These Additional BenefitsSummarySome Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) beneficiaries are subject to a reduction in their DI ben-efits, called an offset, if they also receive workers’ compensation (WC) or public disability benefits (PDBs). Whether their benefits are offset by the Social Security Administration depends on their predis-ability earnings and the state in which the injury occurred.An analysis of recently entitled disabled-worker beneficiaries shows some differences in the charac-teristics of DI beneficiaries who also received WC or PDBs and DI beneficiaries without these additional benefits. This analysis does not include auxiliary beneficiaries or payments to auxiliary beneficiaries. Disabled workers who received both WC or PDBs in addition to DI benefits were more likely to be male, higher earners, older at entitlement, and from the West.The earnings replacement rate for DI beneficiaries covered under Social Security, as measured by the ratio of the monthly DI benefit to average indexed monthly earnings, shows that disabled workers without WC or PDBs had higher replacement rates. This is the result of both the WC or PDB offset and the DI benefit formula ...