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IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies                   Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations           Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor                    Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016                        Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________



Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 65 No. 4
(released May 2005)
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/index.html

Printed copies of this document are scheduled for release in mid-June 2005.

Reassessing the Relationship Between Disability Insurance and Workers' Compensation
by James B. Lockhart III
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p1.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p1.pdf
[full-text, 2 pages]


Workers' Compensation, Social Security Disability Insurance, and the Offset: A Fact Sheet
by Virginia Reno, Cecili Thompson Williams, and Ishita Sengupta
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p3.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p3.pdf
[full-text, 4 pages]

This article offers a brief summary of the workers' compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance programs. Information highlighted includes the differences between the two programs' types and terms of coverage. It compares the differing patterns in workers' compensation and Social Security disability benefits as a percentage of wages over the past few decades and considers the potential causes for such trends. The article also explains the offset provision included in the 1965 Social Security Amendments, the intention behind the offset, and how and when offsets are applied.

Workers' Compensation: A Background for Social Security Professionals
by Ann Clayton
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p7.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p7.pdf
[full-text, 9 pages]

This article provides a brief history and background of workers' compensation programs for occupationally injured and ill workers in the United States. It presents the basic principle involved in workers' compensation and briefly discusses the disability benefits to which workers are generally entitled. It also discusses why there are settlements in this disability program and the availability of information about the amounts paid in workers' compensation cases for obtaining an offset for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits paid to the worker. Finally, the article explains the rationale behind the public policy on coordination of Disability Insurance and workers' compensation in the new paradigm of disability and return to work.

Compensating Workers for Permanent Partial Disabilities
by Peter S. Barth
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p16.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p16.pdf
[full-text, 8 pages]


There is substantial variability in how state workers' compensation laws provide benefits to workers who have a permanent partial disability. The basic approaches used by the states can be classified into four groupings, although important differences exist within each group. Depending on the approach used, workers with similar injuries can receive substantially different amounts of benefits. Because compensating permanent partial disabilities frequently involves contention, the matters in dispute will depend on the approach used to determine benefits. The continuation of such differences in approach suggests that the states have not found a single "best practice" for determining what such benefits should be.


Benefit Adequacy in State Workers' Compensation Programs
by H. Allan Hunt
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p24.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p24.pdf
[full-text, 7 pages]

This article summarizes several different methods used to measure the adequacy of wage replacement in state workers' compensation systems in the United States. Empirical research casts serious doubt on benefit adequacy, especially in the case of more serious disabilities.

The Fraction of Disability Caused at Work
by Robert T. Reville and Robert F. Schoeni
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p31.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p31.pdf
[full-text, 7 pages]

Disability has high societal and personal costs. Various disparate federal and state programs attempt to address the economic and social needs of people with disabilities. Presumably workplace injuries and accidents are an important source of disability. Yet separate public policies and research literatures have evolved for these two social problems­disability and workplace injuries­despite their relatedness. This article seeks to document the overlap between these two phenomena in estimating the proportion of the disabled population whose disability was caused by workplace injury, accident, or illness using the Health and Retirement Study of 1992. The results point toward the need for initiatives to reduce disability that focus on work-related causes, which are a common pathway to disability, and that may result in substantial savings in federal programs.

Design and Implementation Issues in Swedish Individual Pension Accounts
by R. Kent Weaver
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p38.html
or
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4/v65n4p38.pdf
[full-text,  19 pages]

Sweden's new multipillar pension system includes a system of mandatory fully funded individual accounts. The Swedish system offers contributors more than 600 fund options from a variety of private-sector fund managers. However, in the most recent rounds of fund choice, more than 90 percent of new labor market entrants have not made an active choice of funds and thus have ended up in a government-sponsored default fund.

The Swedish system offers a number of lessons about implementing a mandatory individual account tier. Centralized administration keeps administrative costs down but requires considerable lead time. A very large number of fund options are likely to be offered unless strong entry barriers are in place. Engaging new labor market entrants in fund choice is likely to be difficult. A significant percentage of those making an active fund choice may choose funds that are very specialized and risky. Finally, special care must be devoted to designing a default fund and continual consumer communication.

The full report is available at < http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v65n4//OACT/TR/TR05/ >.
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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   *
Director, IWS News Bureau                *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School                        *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             *
New York, NY 10016                        *
                                            *
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