Please review the details below specific to personal injury and deceased claims. In the event these funds are also exhausted, the NY Workers Compensation Law now provides that WTC volunteers may receive benefits directly from the Uninsured Employers Fund, which is funded by fines paid by employers who do not comply with insurance coverage requirements. A decedents expenditures were calculated as a share, based on household size, of certain expenditure categories. If you do not submit complete information about your benefits, the VCF will apply its standard default values: a 401k employer contribution equal to 4% of base salary and $2,400 per year for health insurance. As a result of this amendment, if a victim or family member of a decedent has received, or is entitled to receive, payments from the New York State Workers Compensation Board related to an eligible condition, in general, the VCF will offset those payments. If you did not have SSA earnings (e.g., worked outside the United States or do not have a Social Security number), then you must provide other documents demonstrating earnings including tax returns, statements of profit/loss from a business (if self- employed), W2 forms, 1099 forms, pay stubs, or employment offer letters. An official website of the United States government. Expenses you incurred after the date of certification are not eligible for reimbursement. Your claim for reimbursement of past out-of-pocket medical expenses will only be considered if the criteria outlined below are met: The Special Master may exercise discretion to waive one or more of these requirements as appropriate based on individual claimant circumstances. If you were found to be partially disabled due to an eligible condition in VCF1 based on an FDNY disability determination, and the Social Security Administration subsequently determined that you became fully disabled due to the same condition after your VCF1 award was issued, you may be eligible for additional compensation. The VCF is required by the VCF Actto offset (that is, subtract) from the calculated loss the amount of compensation that you have received, or are entitled to receive, from certain collateral sources as a result of the injury that is eligible for compensation. Since the VCF was reauthorized last year, claims for non-cancer conditions have routinely been awarded the lowest possible amount, absent medical records to support the severity of the condition. - An FDNY Lieutenant who became disabled from working by severe WTC related pulmonary conditions at age 52. Likewise, if the victim was 65 years old or older at the time of death, the VCF generally will not award lost earnings and benefits, based on the presumption that the victim had already reached the end of his or her reasonable work-life expectancy. If you are filing a deceased claim (i.e., a claim seeking wrongful death losses because the victim died as a result of his or her eligible 9/11-related condition), and the victim received or was entitled to receive a disability pension before death, or the victims beneficiaries are receiving or are entitled to receive a survivor pension, you must submit that information before the VCF finalizes the substantive review of the compensation claim. If there is an indication that you are receiving, or are entitled to receive, a disability or survivor pension (or if the decedent received a disability pension before death), but you do not submit information necessary to calculate that pension or determine the basis of that pension, the VCF will not issue a full award and may issue only a non-economic loss award or deactivate the claim because, without that information, the VCF cannot determine whether an offset is appropriate and the amount of that offset. It is important to note that receiving a WTC Health Program disability evaluation through the Process does not guarantee that you will be awarded lost earnings from the VCF. Therefore, this information should be viewed as a general guide to how the VCF implements our fundamental principles: fairness to the claimants, faithfulness to the statute, and accountability to the public, in the service of compensating demonstrable loss caused by an eligible condition. (generic name is listed first, followed by brand name). The VCF Act defines non-economic loss as losses for physical and emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium (other than loss of domestic service), hedonic damages, injury to reputation, and all other non-pecuniary losses of any kind or nature. The VCF may also accept a determination of disability made by a private insurer or a treating physician if they are sufficiently detailed as to the effect of the VCF eligible condition, distinguish those effects from those of ineligible conditions, and provide sufficient information from which the onset and severity of the disabling condition may be determined. Law No. If seeking replacement services loss in the rare personal injury claim where it might be warranted, you must provide a statement describing the types of services you provided before your eligible condition hampered you from doing so, the amount of time spent on those services (per week or month), and the amount of time you are able to spend on those services now (i.e., with the eligible condition). Moreover, the VCF will not disregard a determination that attributed your disability to an ineligible condition, even if it was later changed. The lowest compensation amount was $87.02. or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. [4] Application of individualized unemployment rates by age or occupation was infeasible and determined to be unnecessary. However, the VCF limits the amount a 9/11 attorney may charge a claimant to 10% of the claimant's VCF award. An experienced 9/11 attorney at Pitta & Baione can help you with the VCF award process and answer any questions you have about your rights. Please only submit documents that are related to your 9/11-related eligible physical conditions. Whether the particular offsets fall within the definition of collateral sources; Whether particular offsets should apply to all or some categories of loss (for example, certain disability benefits are offset only against lost earnings; see Table 7: Which Offsets Apply to Which Types of Loss); Whether the collateral source compensation is certain or can be computed with sufficient certainty to enable its offset while ensuring that beneficiaries receive the full amount of compensation that is appropriate; and. In the earliest years of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, payouts ranged from $500 to $8.6 million. The Special Master uses effective income tax rates derived from published Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on selected income and tax items for Individual Income Tax Returns by State. The Special Master will use the expected work-life for active males, with a full-time beginning labor force state, to compute expected remaining years of workforce participation for both male and female victims. Presumptive defined benefit pension values assume a five-year vesting requirement, normal retirement age of 65, and a benefit factor of 1% of average salary for the final five years of employment. Offsets Applied to If you have a diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer that you believe may be related to 9/11, click or call our Kreindler 9/11 VCF team at 877-505-0090 for helpful answers about your eligibility for compensation. Please read this letter carefully. The Special Master will exercise discretion in valuing the appropriate deductions for collateral offsets by determining the following: While it is not possible to define in advance every possible collateral source deduction, the following general illustrations should provide guidance: The following are NOT considered collateral offsets: The Special Master has discretion to determine which offsets should be applied to which losses. The letter will explain the next steps to take on your claim. The 2019 reauthorization legislation provides all necessary appropriations for VCF awards and administrative expenses through the end of FY2092. If the victim is deceased, you should provide a clear statement of the services provided before the onset of the eligible condition and/or death from the eligible condition. In a deceased claim, where the victim died as a result of a VCF-eligible condition, if the victim regularly performed general household-related tasks, then the VCF may provide compensation for the value of those services. This component of economic loss is called replacement services loss and is typically considered to be a component of loss only in deceased claims. For each FDNY victim who is claiming loss of future earnings and benefits and has provided the appropriate authorization, the FDNY sends the VCF the following information, which the VCF uses to calculate economic loss: Generally speaking, because we receive this information directly from the FDNY, anFDNY victim who has been granted a disability pension does not need to submit any additional pension documentation unless the claimant asserts loss from non-FDNY employment. Amount ($000s) 2020 Enacted [37] [29] $0* If you have already filed an amendment to seek medical expenses reimbursement, the VCF will review the expenses as part of our review of your amendment, provided the expenses meet the established criteria. In many cases, these circumstances are best addressed in the context of an appeal hearing. Personal consumption adjustment for decedents: For claims for deceased victims whose death was related to an eligible condition, the VCF subtracts from annual projected compensable income and benefits the decedents share of household expenditures or consumption as a percentage of income, using expenditure data by income level obtained from Table 2. If you do notrespond to our missing information request after 30 days, we will render a decision based on the information contained in your file at that time. See Table 7: Which Offsets Apply to Which Types of Loss. If the breast cancer is disabling, a victim is entitled to additional compensation for lost wages. We urge you (and your attorney, when applicable) to consider the collateral offsets that may be applicable to your claim before submission, and consider submitting a non-economic loss only claim in those cases where your earnings-related offsets are likely to exceed your economic loss. In some cases, even where the record supports the determination that the victims death was related to an eligible condition, it is not clear that the victims death resulted in a compensable loss. As a general rule, under the terms of the VCF Act, the Special Master has identified the following conditions as presumptively less severe and debilitating and thus warranting lower awards, absent medical documentation of severity, than the highest allowable for a non-cancer condition: Asthma/RADS, Barretts Esophagus, Bronchiecstasis, Chronic Airway Obstruction, Chronic Bronchitis, Chronic Cough, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Rhinitis, Esophagitis, Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD), Laryngitis, Nasopharyngitis, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Pharyngitis, Respiratory Conditions due to Fumes or Vapors, Rhinosinusitis, Sinusitis, and Traumatic Injury or Musculoskeletal Disorder. The maximum non-economic loss for any one type of cancer condition is $250,000, and the maximum non-economic loss for any one type of non- cancer condition is $90,000. The VCF will calculate pension loss for victims who worked for a New York City agency that is part of the New York City Employees Retirement System (NYCERS)(e.g., NYC Department of Sanitation, the NYC Department of Corrections, or EMS personnel employed by FDNY), and victims who worked for New York State entities that are part of the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) (e.g., employees of New York State government agencies, municipalities in New York other than NYC, and other local government entities), if complete documentation is provided. Claimants who receive disability benefits under the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program: If you receive disability benefits under the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program (administered by Social Security) as opposed to under the regular Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) program, please indicate that you are receiving SSI benefits when you file the claim and file an Exhibit 1, making sure to select the box requesting release of Current monthly Supplemental Security Income payment amount. The information that the VCF receives from the SSAwill include information about SSI benefits if applicable.
