Accuracy of Disability Benefits to Beneficiaries Who Also Receive Federal Employees’ Compensation Act Payments
- Audit report number
- A-02-15-22114
- Management challenge
- Improve the Prevention, Detection, and Recovery of Improper Payments
- Full report
- /~assets/audits/full/a-02-15-22114_1.pdf
- Summary report
- /~assets/audits/summary/summary-22114.pdf
A Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) payment is a type of workers’ compensation payment administered by the Department of Labor (DOL). When a beneficiary receives both Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) and FECA payments, SSA must reduce the DI benefits for the beneficiary and his/her family to ensure the combined DI benefits and FECA amounts do not exceed the higher of 80 percent of the beneficiary’s average current earnings or the total family benefit.
SSA systems calculate DI benefits based on FECA information entered by SSA staff when the DI claim is processed and recalculate them when staff input FECA payment changes. Incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely updates of records for FECA payment changes can cause improper payments.
In this audit, our objective was to determine the accuracy of Social Security DI benefits paid to beneficiaries who also received FECA payments.
