| Employee Susceptibility to Occupational Disease |
|
| Every employee brings his own idiosyncrasies to his employment. This includes pre-existing weaknesses, hypersensitivities, and other susceptibilities that could impact the employee's health. The minority rule in workers' compensation coverage is that there is no recovery for an occupational disease where a pre-existing condition, such as asthma, contributed to the resulting disease. The minority states consider the disease to be the result of the employee's own innate susceptibility rather than to the peculiar conditions of his employment. More... |
|
|
| Supplemental Security Income Expedited Payments |
|
| In certain instances, the Social Security Administration (SSA) accommodates needy individuals by expediting their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits payments. Generally, the SSA will make expedited payments for presumptive disability or blindness, as an emergency advance, as an immediate payment for new applicants or a financial emergency, and in an expedited reinstatement situation. The SSA is the final arbiter of whether to grant an expedited payment; the SSI applicant or beneficiary has no appeal rights with respect to the SSA's decision. More... |
|
|
| Supplemental Security Income Appeals Process |
|
| Aggrieved individuals may appeal initial determinations of the Social Security Administration with respect to a variety of issues. A non-exhaustive list of appealable issues includes whether an individual is eligible to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, the amount of an individual's SSI benefit, whether an overpayment has occurred and the amount to be repaid, and whether the individual suffers from a "disability." Though individuals have sixty days to initiate the appeal process, only those individuals who appeal within ten days may have their benefits continued until the appeal is decided. If ultimately, the individual's appeal is unsuccessful, the payments he received in the interim will be considered overpayments. After each decision in the appeal process, the individual has another sixty days in which to appeal to the next level. More... |
|
|
| Death Benefits |
|
| The surviving dependents of a deceased worker may receive workers' compensation death benefits if the worker's death arose out of and in the course of his employment. Death benefits provide weekly compensation to the dependents. In most states, the amount of total dependency benefits received is based on a percentage of the worker's average weekly wage. For partial dependency benefits, the amount received is commonly calculated as a portion of the dependent's support that was received from the worker. In addition to weekly compensation, death benefits also include a payment for the worker's burial expenses. The amount allotted for these expenses is set by the Workers' Compensation Act of each state and varies widely between the jurisdictions. More... |
|
|
| Post-Employment Injuries |
|
| Though it would seem to be antagonistic to the principle that an injury must arise out of the employment to be compensable, some injuries that occur post-employment are still compensable. Depending on the situation, some activities occurring post-employment are considered by the courts to be normal work activities. For example, injuries incurred while picking up a paycheck, exiting the work premises, and collecting belongings from the employer's premises have all been held to be compensable provided that such activities are undertaken within a reasonable time after the employment relationship has ended. More... |
|
|