Workers’ Compensation Disability Benefits during Retirement Years: Proper and Present Role

Abstract

About 70% of the $17.5-billion workers’ compensation benefits paid to workers with job-related injuries or diseases in 1983 were cash benefits (Price, 1986). The remaining payments went to providers of medical care to these workers. Of the cash payments, about 87% went to disabled workers either as income replacement benefits or as compensation for physical impairments. The other 13% were death benefits payable to survivors of deceased workers. An unknown, but not negligible, proportion of the disability benefits were paid to workers who, if they had not been disabled by job-related injuries or diseases, would have retired prior to 1983.¹ This chapter deals with a seldom-discussed aspect of workers’ compensation—whether workers’ compensation disability benefits should be continued past the age at which the worker, if not disabled, presumably would have retired. This chapter will 1) present a case for discontinuing these benefits at the presumed retirement age, 2) summarize similar proposals made by others, 3) indicate whether United States jurisdictions currently make any adjustments during postretirement years, 4) explore the political and administrative reasons that explain the disparity between the proposed discontinuance and present practice, and 5) present a modified proposal that may be more acceptable.