Little Things that may affect your SSA benefits.Workers Compensation Benefits

0:01 How are you doing, everybody? This is Anthony Reeves, and I'm here to give you another little tip about something that could affect your Social Security case after you received your benefits. As you know, the first two times we talked about warrants and child support. This time we're talking about workers compensation.

0:20 If you get injured on the work in the workplace, guse me, you may find yourself entitled to workers' compensation benefits. What most people don't realize is under the Social Security Disability program, the two programs offset one another. And when they mean by offset, that means it is very possible that receipt of benefits from workers' compensation will have an impact on your Social Security disability claim.

0:46 And it's weird because basically what it is is, let me make sure I explain it to you in a way that it makes sense. They based on your average eighty percent of your average current earnings. So take you figure this. If the combined benefits of your workers comp benefits with your Social Security benefits together is greater than eighty percent of your average current earnings, they're going to probably reduce your Social Security disability benefits by that dollar amount. Now I will tell you. If you find yourself being confused, you want to make sure you talk to either a very seasoned workers comp attorney or season social security disability attorney. Because this gets tricky. Follow me on this. Let's say,

1:30 for instance, that your average monthly earnings was like a thousand bucks a month. Okay, so eighty percent of that would be eight hundred dollars. So that's the dollar amount you're looking at. So then what they look at is how much would you be getting in your workers comp combined in your social security.

1:45 Well, let's say that for your workers comp your monthly amount is like, you know, sixty bucks a month, but then your Social security is like five hundred. Well, that five hundred and sixty dollars a month is less than the eight hundred dollars I gave you at the very beginning, so that wouldn't be an offset. Well, let's add it even better. Let's say your SOB security is like seven hundred bucks, and your when you factor in your workers comp your monthly benefits going forward, it's like one hundred bucks, or it's going to be like two hundred bucks. Well, that's nine hundred dollars of your combined benefits, which is going to be over eight hundred dollars of your average current earnings. So you have an offset of one hundred

2:23 dollars. That means that one hundred dollars is what they would use to reduce your monthly benefits. Now follow me this because a lot of times, whenever I'm talking about this, it gets confusing. It's a weird beast. It's a weird beast. But this is how it usually plays out. Let's see, you got hurt on the job, and because the injury was so bad, you're a worker's attorney, or you decided that you knew you wouldn't be able to go back to work. So you got two things going at the same time, your workers comp claim and you've got your SOB Security camp claim.

2:55 Now, let's say you settle your workers comcase. You got to be careful because certain things within that workers comp settlement does not apply to Social security. For instance, if a portion of that is your attorney fees, that's not included when calculating an offset. If the portion of those are you're basically future medicals. One of these past medicals. For sure, it doesn't cover that. There are certain aspects of it. And this is why. And I'll be honest, I haven't done in a while. I have to check because that because those get really tricky. There are certain things that do not offset. So when calculating that dollar amount going forward, you've got to be able to take certain things out of the equation. Now, I know that's

3:39 still kind of confusing. Follow me a little bit more on This will usually happen when you get a settlement for workers comp It'll be a lump sum settlement. In that settlement, they create what's called a washout agreement that lets you know how much is it of attorney fees, how much of it is it in future medicals, how much of it and pass wages, how much of it in the future wages, And from that social Security can determine what aspects of it are going to be attributed towards your offset. Now here's where it gets a little bit more tricky when they're calculating your month your benefits, because this is the thing is wild. You usually get a lump suck and that's it. But the purposes of calculating social security, what they'll do is they'll

4:26 look at your future wages and they'll figure out if they let's say they give you a one hundred thousand dollars and one hundred thousand of it goes to future wages. Well, they're going to look at your age, say I'm forty with the laverage. Life expectancy of a man is about seventy five. So what they would do is they would take one hundred thousand, and they would take thirty five, you know, thirty five years I have left remaining, and they say thirty five times twelve, give you a total number of months, and then divide that dollar amount by the number of months, and that dollar and basically whatever that number of months sit, that dollar amount divided by that number of months would let you know how much it would be if they

5:00 paid you every month as opposed to giving you one lump sum, and they use that dollar amount along with your monthly Social Security to determine your offset. I know this is confusing, and I'll be the first to tell you if after me explaining this, it still sells a little bit more confusing. Hit me up at my blog at legal beat dot Anthony Reeves dot com, or you can ask me a question Anthony at readsfirm dot com. Because, like I said, it's a little tricky, but just keep in mind that when it comes to workers come, don't sleep, it will affect your disability benefits.

5:36 This I can almost guarantee you. So make sure that if you're not sure or take the opportunity, speak to one of the analysts at Social Security, speak to your attorney whether we workers come by social Security, and trust me, I tell you it's going to have an impact. And this is just another little thing that you need to be aware of so that you know that this may affect your Social Security disability benefits after you win