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Will SSD benefits be reduced because of other benefits?

On Behalf of | Aug 26, 2015 | Social Security Disability

When Georgia residents suffer serious financial setbacks, they often are in need of all the help they can get. With this in mind, individuals may seek out multiple sources of financial assistance, particularly when a single kind of benefit is not enough on its own to make up the person’s lost income.

For example, when a person suffers a work-related injury, multiple kinds of benefits are often sought. This may include workers’ compensation, Social Security disability benefits for injuries and other kinds of assistance that are available. While these different benefits combine to form greater financial assistance to the injured person, the receipt of different kinds of benefits can also affect each other.

Workers’ compensation benefits that are paid to a worker because of a work-related injury typically reduce a person’s Social Security benefits. The same is true with other kinds of public disability benefits, including those paid by federal, state or local governments for disabling medical conditions, even if those conditions are not necessarily job-related. For instance, civil service disability benefits, state temporary disability benefits and state or local government retirement benefits based on disability will typically reduce Social Security benefits. Ultimately, the total amount of a person’s benefits cannot exceed 80 percent of what the person previously earned before the injury.

On the other hand, other kinds of benefits will not affect a person’s Social Security disability benefits. Private pensions and insurance benefits, for example, will not affect the SSD benefits. In addition, Veterans Administration benefits and Supplemental Security Income will not reduce the Social Security disability benefit. Accordingly, whether a person’s SSD benefits will be reduced depends on what other kinds of benefits the person receives.

Source: Social Security Administration, “How workers’ compensation and other disability payments may affect your disability benefits,” accessed on Aug. 22, 2015

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