SENATOR COLLINS SHINES LIGHT ON FEDERAL WORKERS COMP WASTE
January 11, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has called for a thorough review of the program that provides federal employees with protection against loss of income from work-related injuries.
The Federal Employee Compensation Act (FECA) pays benefits to roughly 49,000 federal employees to ensure that injured employees receive income while they recuperate pending their return to work. Senator Collins asked the Government Accountability Office to audit FECA and report on the length of time individuals remain on the program, the number of recipients who exceeded the standard federal retirement age, and how the federal program compares to state workers’ compensation best practices. Senator Collins also asked GAO to compare records against the Death Master File and the civilian payroll database to search for deceased individuals receiving benefits or recipients “double dipping.”
“I am increasingly concerned that individuals with no intention of returning to work continue to receive these benefits,” said Senator Collins. “At the U.S. Postal Service, for example, 1,000 employees currently receiving federal workers’ compensation benefits are 80 years or older. Incredibly, 132 of these individuals are 90 and older and there are three who are 98. This abuse may extend across the government where the Department of Labor regularly pays benefits to employees in their 70s, 80s, 90s, and even 100s. The lack of benefit caps and requirements for regular third-party certifications of continued need further expose the FECA program to possible fraud. If recipients are gaming this crucial benefit at taxpayers’ expense, they must be exposed and the underlying program must be reformed.”
FECA is more generous than federal retirement since on average employees on FECA receive nearly three quarters of their gross pay, tax-free. Under FECA, there also is an annual cost-of-living adjustment. By comparison, a federal employee with 30 years of service would retire under CSRS with an average of just over 56 percent of his or her gross pay, which is taxed. Under this scenario, a retired federal employee would receive 27 percent less annually than a comparable federal employee on FECA. FECA has no limits on the amount of time spent in the program or the amount of money given to recipients. FECA has no caps or cut-off periods, which is why there are reported cases of recipients in their 90s and 100s still receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
If this bill passes, many of us who are on Permanent Disability, and are unable to work will then be passed onto the State Agencies who are already financially stressed! We will go from just getting by week to week, to on the street, and homeless! This is a very BAD BILL! Please oppose it!
Senator Collins must realize people on worker comp are harassed by owcp to go to second opinion doctors and intrusive forms of what you did all year. She doesn’t live in pain. She doesn’t think of the overtime an employee loses. She is just out of touch
Started having asthma attacks while working near construction at a
Va hospital-had to go to VA ER. Sent right back to the same place-with a CA1, completed, to givwe to supervisor. situation repeats itswelf, over and over. work in the same area with a mask-continue to be sick. Submitted a second CA1 and doctor’s notes.Long story short-CA1s never sent to OWCP by VA until I was forced to leave on “early retirement” Not one medical bill covered, refused COP, LWOP. LOA, FMLA, SL. after quitting, then VA submitted and fought the progressive condition they caused for two years. After over $20,000 for attorney, comp. granted. My retirement was short. Tried to go back to work at a suitable nursing job at another VA facility as a case management nurse, approved by rehab. Applied for open position, when just about hired, VA called that they had hired outside the agency. I just found out, the VA had told the counselor but not me nor my attorney , that my return to work with the Agency was not an option. So I have been stuck at 1999 salary that has been totally cut off at times, reinstated for less, then started again for a different amount. Newsflash-at age 60 check went down $500 because I turned 60, due to increased deductions for insurances. I still want to go back to work and reclaim my retirement years but have not been allowed to do this.
This video is a condensed version of what’s wrong with Susan Collins attempt to cut workers compensation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ybkkiH2Ho
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am4wez1ShPY&feature=channel&list=UL
Workers’ compensation exists not to protect disabled workers but to protect the agencies responsible for their illnesses and injuried from more expensive lawsuits. OWCP already terminates people who have medically recovered or who refuse to take a job they could do given their medical condition. Workers not injured on the job have the opportunity for promotions, step increases and contributions to the Thrift Savings program as well as to their own private retirement savings. The injured worker who already suffers the pain of the injury should not be condemned to poverty in addition.
I agree with John Jones. My wife was injured at work at the Veteran’s Hospital where she broke her neck and severely damaged her shoulder moving a patient. With all that we went through with OWCP trying to get them to honor THEIR agreement is like pulling teeth. They do little things to sabotage things. For example, they arrange transportation for doctor’s appointments but not pay or partial pay for such transportation. When you call for transportation and find out that it has to be approved first, and call the case worker, they NEVER respond back. But if you miss the appointment because of lack of transportation, they cut off your benefits because you didn’t go to the appointment. My wife went to school for her trade at the community college. She paid for her education. But the rehab counselor sends her to a place for recovering crack addicts for a 1 day to 1 week training that they say is supposed to prepare her for another job. If Sen. Collins want to investigate something, why don’t she investigate the PRACTICES employed by OWCP instead of trying to punish injured workers.
Trelayne is right on target. Sen. Collins is sadly misinformed and ignorant concerning OWCP. Her cry of “fraud” shows that she knows little or nothing about this system that is heavily in favor of the employing agency, not the injured worker. But then, maybe her cries are more motivated by an anti-worker (ordinary people) ideology than by the existence of a genuine problem.
Sen. Collins needs to examine the OWCP system more closely and note that far more reform is needed there than merely the alleged overpayment of older workers.
Consider the younger worker with a family, injured on the job, out of work, children to feed, mortgage to pay, and waiting up to a year or more, while the case file is lost, documents are mislaid, caseworkers transferred and no compensation or treament for the injured worker who is still waiting for claim approval.
Or, the worker with an approved claim and an OWCP surgeon who will not accept the payment OWCP has set for the surgery, but OWCP also refuses to accept a new surgeon who might accept the payment OWCP will allow for the surgery. The injured employee must sit and suffer, at 60% pay, while the game plays out and the house goes into foreclosure, and the children suffer.
In a government of the people, by the people and for the people, might it not be reasonable for Sen. Collins to ask for some reform for the actual intended beneficiaries of OWCP???????
I agree that there should be a cap to the age at which a feca recipient should cease getting paid by OWCP. They should establish an age limit, say 60 y.o.a., at which point the employee should be automatically switched over to their retirement system; whether it be CSRS or FERS. The time spent on OWCP should be credited towards their career time and retirement pay should begin along with paying the appropriate taxes as the other retirees pay. This would cut down on the amount of money being reimbursed by the USPS and possibly cut back on the amount of fraudulent cases being paid out over time. It is not fair to those who work for 35-40 years who get less than those receiving FECA since they receive 75% of their pay TAX FREE. Their FECA medical benefits should stay intact if warranted.
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