Posted on 12/30/2010 10:56:29 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
...
That's because under the federal system, disabled employees unable to return to work get to choose between receiving higher-paying workers' compensation benefits or the lower-paying federal retirement plan. ... The money is almost always better under the workers' compensation program, which pays up to 75 percent of the employees' salaries tax-free, compared with the 60 percent they would receive under the retirement system.
Across government, more than 7,000 injured employees continue to collect workers' compensation after retirement age, and a few have even gotten payouts lasting decades well into their 90s, government records show.
Recent legislation by Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, proposes to transfer workers' compensation recipients to the retirement system when they reach retirement age.
...
Dan Adcock, legislative director for the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said the organization opposes such a move. He said forcing employees into retirement represents a broken promise to injured workers, who in deciding to take workers' compensation payments have given up their rights to sue the government over their injuries.
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Citing Labor Department figures, the office estimated annual savings across the government of nearly $500 million by moving workers into a retirement system.
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That same report found there were 81 employees who had been collecting workers' compensation payments for between 40 and 50 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I’m sure a certain Freeper will be by here with paragraphs worth of justification for this ripoff of the taxpayer.
I’m thinking I really need to get a federal job
Hey, why not? Its a great benefit and their bosses have no need to balance the cost of benefits against profitability. Unlike most benefits, our new ruling class can jail you if you don’t pay for their product or the benefits of the lords and ladies who produce it. In fact, why isn’t it 100% of salary for the rest of their lives?
The days of 60 percent retirements are coming to an end as the last CSRS employees retire and everybody else is on FERS.
What does that mean? I am betting that it will mean more fed employees trying to go for disability. I have guy in my office that I think is going for this, but he isn't very good at it. The other guys are joking about pulling a surveillance on the guy to catch him leading an active lifestyle at home while he is gimping around the office.
Maybe they need to reform it like the military disability system. You get a percentage based on the injury and unless you are severely disabled then you move to retirement when you hit the normal age.
This also isn't just a federal issue.
“Maybe they need to reform it like the military disability system.”
I hope you’re kidding.
In the military, sleep apnea is the latest big diagnosis. I don't know how sleep apnea could be service related unless you were wounded and had a bunch of scar tissue in your neck, but they pay 50% for that.
Well, wouldn't you know it, he came down with anthrax.
He's one of the 7,000 people Collins is after to balance the federal budget. He's still in a hospital.
It really makes a lot of sense to bust his chops and take him off disability and put him on regular retirement pay.
One of the more meaningful events in his life I am sure.
He's also foregoing PROMOTIONS while he lays there in his bed ~
Did somebody say this Collins broad is a crazy old lady . Let me add that she's mean and cruel and IGNANT.
I don’t mean turning it into the VA, I mean giving people a percentage based on their disability. An FBI agent that gets paralyzed in a gun fight should get more than an IRS worker that pops an achilles tendon trying to get out of a chair.
“You get a percentage based on the injury and unless you are severely disabled then you move to retirement when you hit the normal age.”
Actually, in the Army, you get a pittance of a severance no matter how screwed up you are, no retirement. Then you’re forced to go on extended unemployment while filing your VA claim.
It’s a large hurdle to achieve disability retirement in the Army.
Is your friend of retirement age?
“I don’t mean turning it into the VA, I mean giving people a percentage based on their disability. An FBI agent that gets paralyzed in a gun fight should get more than an IRS worker that pops an achilles tendon trying to get out of a chair.”
I agree. The problem is that right now the Army doesn’t do that. They use the MEB/PEB process to screw the soldier. IOW, they don’t rate you properly on your disability. They outright lie on paper.
I’m told the other services don’t have the abysmal record the Army does.
You are aware that there are disability cases wholly lacking merit balancing that of your buddy? His case has merit, that’s true, but the easy life of disability causes the weaker to opt into it for causes that are — just as weak medically as they are morally.
well obviously postal inspectors should get more than our troops
My brother took over a engineering platoon a year after Desert Storm that had been involved in the initial breaching of the Iraqi obstacles. One of their ACE drivers was still facing charges for dropping the blade and collapsing a trench on the Iraqis that were firing at him. The 100+ bullet hits on the blade were evidently not a good enough defense.
I don't think the state should have to pay extra for something that isn't a work related injury. Now a guy that worked his whole career in a government warehouse and comes up with a bad back is work related.
“Did somebody say this Collins broad is a crazy old lady . Let me add that she’s mean and cruel and IGNANT. “
Did anyone say this guy was going to get kicked out of the hospital and his care terminated?
Until that happens, stow the hysteria, which is an all-too typical Fed reaction when their feather-bed is threatened.
“He’s also foregoing PROMOTIONS while he lays there in his bed ~”
Guess how it works in the private sector? You don’t get promoted on workers comp. It’s one of those inconveniences that the private sector must endure that is an unfortunate side-effect of a devastating on-the-job injury.
Only in Fed-land would you try to give a guy lying in a hospital bed more money in workers comp because he might have gotten promoted.
It really is a psychological disorder that Feds suffer - it should be called “I’m Not Special, Afterall Panic Disorder” or something - but I really don’t want to say that too loudly or you’ll ALL apply for disability and a tax-free paycheck.
“In the military, sleep apnea is the latest big diagnosis. I don’t know how sleep apnea could be service related unless you were wounded and had a bunch of scar tissue in your neck, but they pay 50% for that.”
I know some of the sleep apnea studies are related to PTSD, but I thought it was simply in determining how severe the PTSD was. I didn’t know it was a stand alone rating. I should have asked for an sleep study. lol
an sleep study = a sleep study (pet peeve)
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