Social security bulletin
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The first workers' compensation program was introduced 80 years ago. Its purpose was to compensate occupationally injured workers and their families for lost wages and medical expenses from job-related injury, regardless of fault. Today, each of the State and Federal programs that provides coverage to more than 86 percent of the work force uses a combination of private insurance, State or Federal funds, and self-insurance to meet its benefit obligations. ⋯ Because the two programs have gaps in protection as well as duplication in coverage, a periodic review of the workers' compensation program is necessary. In addition, SSA administers Part B of the Black Lung program--established to provide income-maintenance protection to coal miners disabled by pneumoconiosis--to about 1 million beneficiaries whose claims were filed before July 1973. This article provides revised benchmark data on the workers' compensation programs and presents a review of program operations during the early 1980's.
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In 1985, the Social Security Administration commissioned an 18-month research project to study disability in eight industrialized countries: Austria, Canada, Finland, the Federal Republic of Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The study focused on three key areas: (1) the initial determination of disability, (2) the methods of monitoring disability, and (3) the incentives to return to work. ⋯ Among the similarities are: (1) most countries have several income-maintenance programs to protect workers in the event that they are disabled, and (2) the disability test to determine whether a person is eligible for a disability benefit is ambiguous in that the various programs each have different eligibility criteria, different definitions of disability, different considerations given to labor-market conditions, and so forth. This article examines the diversity among the countries and attempts to highlight unique approaches to adjudicating disability, providing linkages to rehabilitation, and creating incentives for returning to work.
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Workers' compensation provides medical care and income maintenance protection to workers disabled from work-related injury or illness. This program is of considerable interest to the Social Security Administration (SSA) from several perspectives. ⋯ In addition, since December 1969 SSA has administered claims filed through 1973 under part B of the Black Lung program--the program providing income maintenance protection to coal miners disabled by pneumoconiosis. The workers' compensation experience reported here consists of information on benefits for work-related injury and disease, including data on the combined benefits paid under the entire Federal Black Lung program administered by the Labor Department and SSA.
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Social security bulletin · Sep 1983
Comparative StudyPurchasing power of U.S. Social Security benefits abroad, 1970-82.
This article examines whether the small number of Social Security beneficiaries living abroad enjoy a higher standard of living than they would with the same benefits if they lived in the United States. The article addresses this question using two methods. First, absolute comparisons of U. ⋯ Second, the effects of changes in Social Security benefit levels, exchange rates, and rates of inflation on the relative value of benefits abroad are measured. Both methods show considerable instability in purchasing power of Social Security benefits in the 1970's. Although beneficiaries in 1970 generally could live better abroad than in the United States, this advantage eroded considerably during the 1970's, followed by some improvement in 1981-82.
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Social security bulletin · May 1983
Unearned income of Supplemental Security Income recipients, May 1982.
About 3 out of 5 Supplemental Security Income recipients have some type of unearned income. The major source of this income is Social Security benefits. Other sources are veterans' pensions, pensions from employment, asset income, and support and maintenance in-kind. ⋯ Unearned income from sources other than Social Security was usually smaller. Only 5 percent of the SSI population received less tha $100 in Social Security benefits. Differences in distributions for retired-worker and disabled-worker benefits, and for widow's and children's benefits are noted.