Thursday, May 12, 2011
U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Workforce Protec Committee on Education and the Workforce Washington, DC
The 1974 amendments removed the provision, enacted as part of the 1949 amendments, requiring that FECA benefits be reviewed and permitting FECA benefits to be reduced after a claimant reached the age of 70 to account for the reduced earning capacity that may come with age
In its report on the 1974 amendments, the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare provided the following justification for eliminating the reduced benefit provision: The Committee finds that such a review places an unnecessary burden on both the employees receiving compensation and the Secretary. Further, the fact that an employee reaches 70 has no bearing on his or her entitlement to benefits and is considered discriminatory in the Committee’s opinion.
Excerpt from statement by Ms. Lynn Woolsey the senior Democrat member of the subcommittee regarding reduced benefits for those who reach retirement age.The Administration’s “redesign” cuts FECA benefits for permanently disabled workers with dependents from 75 percent of the average wage to 50 percent when they reach “normal” social security eligibility age. Perhaps this decision was made on the assumption that individuals leave the workforce and don’t pursue employment after age 66, which we know is not true anymore. Furthermore, this one-size-fits-all approach could result in unfair treatment of injured workers whose wages were low, and possibly violate a core principal of FECA that no one should be economically worse off because of a work related injury.
Excerpt from Prepared Statement of Scott Szymendera, Analyst in Disability PolicCongressional Research Service
While the 1949 amendments generally increased the level of FECA benefits, the amendments also required the FECA administrator to review the amount of compensation paid to any person aged 70 or older. The administrator was provided the authority to reduce the amount of such benefits if it was determined that the worker’s wage-earning capacity had been reduced because of age, independent of his or her disability.This provision was opposed by several representatives from federal employee organizations who testified before the House Education and Labor Committee that such a provision was inconsistent with the mandatory federal employee retirement age of 70 in place at the time and could cause undue hardships to workers who, because of their disabilities, had not been able to reach their full earning potential or who had reduced pensions because of many years of limited or no earnings.
1960 Amendment
The chargeback process
The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act Amendments of 1960, P.L. 86-767, created the chargeback
process in which the Secretary of Labor is required to bill each federal agency for the costs of FECA
benefits provided to their employees in the previous fiscal year so that these agency may reimburse the
Employees’ Compensation Fund. In addition, these amendments required that government corporations
also pay their “fair share” of FECA administrative costs to the government. The chargeback process was
intended by Congress to “further the promotion of safety” among federal agencies by making the agencies
ultimately responsible for the costs of injuries, illnesses, and deaths of their employees.
Because the Post Office has to reimburse the Employees’ Compensation Fund for benefits provided in the previous year plus administrative costs the Post Office’s Upper Management has a higher stake in cutting compensation for their injured workers as the Post Office isn’t supported by taxes but must pay compensation out of revenue from stamp sales, post office box rentals,etc.
Now once again some members of Congress have set their sights on lowering compensation for federal injured workers and particularly for those 65 and older.
Lieberman with S1789 and Issa with HR2309 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am4wez1ShPY.
To view video, highlight and right click which brings a choice of “go to by clicking left https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am4wez1ShPY
Ads can be omitted by going to full screen