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Charitable gifts - the final regulations clarify that benefits from charities (privately-funded charitable entities) disbursing private donations will not be treated as collateral source compensation, even if such charities were created or managed by governmental entities. The VCF provides financial compensation to individuals (or a personal representative of a deceased individual) who were present at the World Trade Center or in the VCF's NYC Exposure Zone ; the Pentagon crash site; or the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site, at some point between September 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002, and who have been . First, you need to show that you actually lost compensation. If you're preparing to submit a claim to the VCF, you may have many questions about the September 11 th Victim Compensation Fund ("VCF") claim review process. These benefits will be set at actual levels if you provide the necessary data. Obstructive Airways Diseases include asthma, bronchiectasis, chronic airway obstruction, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, reactive airways disease, reactive airways dysfunction, and respiratory conditions due to fumes and vapors. Deferred or vested compensation from employment. Anybody with a physical health certification from the WTC Health Program and/or medical proof that they suffer from a condition the federal government has linked to 9/11 can qualify for an award for "pain and suffering", also known as "non-economic loss." To help the VCF understand the severity and effect of your condition, you may want to submit supporting documents related to your condition with your claim. In determining household size for claims for decedents, the Special Master will assume that children will remain in the household through age 23. If, as a benefit of your employment, you are a member of a defined benefit pension plan, and you submit documentation of all information required to calculate a pension benefit under your plan, the VCF generally will calculate your benefits using that data. The expenses were paid prior to the date the WTC Health Program certified the applicable condition as eligible for treatment (applicable condition refers to the specific condition for which the expenses were incurred). How Much Am I Eligible For? 3796) to provide that the benefits paid under the Act shall be in addition to any other benefit that may be due from any other source, except . WTC VCF Cancer Payouts | 9/11 Cancer Claim Lawyer For example, the victim may suffer from multiple types of cancer or may have a severe non-cancer eligible condition along with an eligible cancer. Note that this information should be in a letter that was sent to the victim at retirement or in a Federal Retirement Benefits printout: Date that victim entered the FERS system (date used to calculate Creditable Service for Retirement), Total years and months of credited service, Letter from Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirming that the victims disability retirement has been approved and stating the conditions forming the basis of the disability, Amount of Monthly Disability Pension in first 12 months (already reduced by Social Security benefits), Amount of Disability Pension after 12 months (already reduced by Social Security benefits), Estimate of re-calculated Disability Pension at age 62, Type of survivor benefit (e.g., Basic Employee Death Benefit, Survivor Annuity). Present value: Calculate the present value of projected earnings and fringe benefits using discount rates based on a weighted average of historical yields on mid- to long-term U.S. Treasury securities, adjusted for income taxes using a mid-range effective tax rate. Please do not submit another copy of the Exhibit 1 for the victim. Letter from the Board of Trustees of the Fire Department Pension Fund Regarding Award of Accident Disability Retirement: This is a letter issued to the individual on FDNY letterhead from the Director of the Board of Trustees of the Fire Department Pension Fund regarding whether the Board approved or disapproved the victims application for accident disability retirement. In such cases, the non-economic award may be greater than $250,000, with a maximum award, under current VCF policy guidelines, of $340,000 for multiple severe conditions. Documentation showing the Effective Date and the victims final grade, step, and location the best source of this information is the most recent SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) prior to retirement. If SSA or another entity found you disabled based on a condition that is not eligible for compensation by the VCF, please do not contact SSA or the other entity to request that they change your disability determination solely for the purpose of obtaining VCF compensation. Rupa Bhattacharyya '95 can pinpoint the hardest decision she had to make in her 25 years as a government attorney. Given the statutorily designated backstop through the Uninsured Employers Fund, future funding for the WTC Volunteer Fund is now certain. If you do not notify the VCF, we will assume that there are no liens. However, this is not all of what goes into VCF cancer payouts. By doing this analysis before submitting your claim, the VCF will be able to more quickly process your claim because we do not need to take the time to calculate the economic loss in order to determine that only non-economic loss can be awarded. Likewise, in a wrongful death claim, the VCF will only offset a survivor pension to the extent it is greater than the pension the victim was otherwise entitled to receive. Interstitial Lung Diseases include asbestosis, granulomatosis, interstitial pneumonia, pneumonitis, pulmonary fibrosis, and sarcoidosis. World Trade Center Health Program: Approach Used to Add Cancers to List of Covered Conditions was Reasonable but Could be Improved, GAO-14-606, July 2014. To calculate economic losses, however, whatever income tax rate corresponded to the victims determined compensable income bracket as of the date of death, or time the victim was unable to work or had to reduce work as a result of eligible conditions, was assumed to apply for the remainder of the victims career, without increase. Historical unemployment rates were examined and a reduction factor of 6% is applied to presumed earnings and fringe benefits to account for this risk[4]. (2) A document that demonstrates the amount of the expense that you have paid out- of-pocket, as explained below. Pain and Suffering Damages From 9/11 | WTC VCF Awards The VCF also offers compensation for non-economic losses to the families of 9/11 victims who died as a result of the attacks or subsequent debris removal. If you have had such tests, please submit the test results including the physicians interpretation of the tests. In addition, the law requires the Special Master, in each case, to take account of the harm to the claimant, the facts of the claims, and the individual circumstances of the claimant. Personal representatives must submit the following: A letter from the union/Con Edison/Verizon stating the monthly (or lump sum) amount of your survivor pension. These rates are shown in Table 5 below. While every individual's claim is different depending on their individual circumstances, this is a standard calculation used for everyone who has an eligible condition to file a claim. If you are submitting a personal injury claim and you claim a loss of earnings, the VCF must determine whether you are unable to work, or have a reduced ability to work, as a result of an eligible 9/11-related physical condition. To request a review in the case of a decrease in a collateral source payment when the higher payment was used in the calculation of your award, you must file an amendment. If you have a defined benefit pension that was or will be reduced because you retired early due to an eligible condition, the VCF may compensate you for that loss. This has the effect of decreasing offsets and, thus, increasing the amount of VCF awards. Under the reopened VCF, attorneys' fees were limited to 10% of the VCF award.7 VCF Reauthorization The reopened VCF was scheduled to stop taking claims on October 3, 2016. Please be aware that any documents you submit after we have finalized the substantive review of your compensation claim will not be reviewed as that review would delay the issuance of your award determination. Rupa Bhattacharyya works to ensure that fair compensation goes to the victims of the September 11th attacks. The VCF has arrangements with NYCERS and NYSLRS, whereby these entities provide directly to the VCF the information and documentation needed to evaluate disability, lost earnings, and pension benefits for its members (living and deceased), upon receipt of a completed Exhibit B1. Other state Workers Compensation programs have not enacted similar legislation. A top 9/11 lawyer is crusading to help surviving families take If your claim is missing documentation that we need in order to calculate your award, you will receive a missing information letter. If that is the case, then the VCF must determine the extent of that loss. 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. Other expenses that are not eligible for reimbursement include insurance premiums, expenses related to replacement services, investigational and holistic treatment, home health care or in-home aides, nursing home/live-in rehabilitation facilities, wigs, household items such as vacuum cleaners, air filters, and water filters, or home modifications. Non-economic loss is calculated separately from an economic loss claim. See the section below about documentation of employment-related benefits. A significant increase (more than a cost of living adjustment) in the amount of a previously reported collateral offset may constitute an additional payment that should be reported. The WTC Volunteer Fund provides medical and indemnity (cash) payments for volunteers who are disabled as a result of their efforts. When uploading the Supporting Documentation Packet to your claim, select the document type Medical Expense Supporting Documentation Packet. If you fail to include the required supporting documentation, your claim for medical expenses will be denied. Please read this letter carefully. How Much Is The VCF with Cancer Claims Payouts - Parker Waichman LLP Victim Compensation Fund continues to offer relief to 9/11 survivors The VCF must consider evidence of an eligible disability in light of all the evidence, including an ineligible condition that is also disabling. If any part of these expenses was covered by life insurance or another source, you must provide documentation of that coverage. $340,000 for a downtown office worker with skin cancer and larynx cancer $340,000 for a retired NYPD officer with cancers of the colon and mouth 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. 3. The VCF (which stands for "Victim Compensation Fund") provides financial compensation for those who were physically injured or died as a result of an eligible 9/11-related illness (these include cancer claims ). As required by the VCF Act, your final award will be calculated using this basic formula: Non-Economic Loss plus Economic Loss, minus Collateral Offsets. Melanoma Skin Cancer 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Law Firm An exception to this general rule may arise in those cases where a claimant is found disabled by the SSA due to Chronic Pulmonary Insufficiency or Chronic Respiratory Disorders and his or her only eligible condition is an Interstitial Lung Disease (e.g., sarcoidosis or pulmonary fibrosis). Growth rates: The VCF projects compensable income and benefits through the victims expected work-life using growth rates that incorporate an annual inflationary or cost-of-living component, an annual real overall productivity or scale adjustment in excess of inflation, and an annual real life-cycle or age-specific increase derived using data on average full-time year-round earnings by age bracket from the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The FDNY Medical Board Committee Report: This is a report from the Chief Medical Officer of the FDNY on FDNY letterhead regarding the Result of Medical Committee, which summarizes the FDNY members WTC-related exposure, medical history, diagnosis, and the Medical Board Committees recommendation as to the extent of the members disability and fitness for firefighting duty. For married or single individuals with dependents,[5] these expenditure categories include Food, Apparel & Services, Transportation, Entertainment, Personal Care Products and Services, and Miscellaneous. 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. Table 4 below shows calculated consumption rates by income bracket and for various household sizes. For example, an employer might provide a statement showing your compensation history and time periods where you missed work and were not compensated. You do not need to resubmit documents you have already submitted in support of your amendment, but you must be certain the documentation you provided meets the requirements outlined in Documentation Required to Support a Medical Expenses Claim below. A Pension Work History or similar document from the union, showing the number of hours worked and credits earned in every year of work. More information about Non-Economic Loss, Economic Loss, and Collateral Offsets can be found in the sections below. Under the VCF Act, the VCF does not compensate for potential or anticipated future medical expenses. NYPD victims who retired on a non-WTC-related accidental pension, ordinary disability pension that is not based on VCF-eligible conditions, or service pension will not be eligible for a lost earnings award unless they can provide a disability determination from a third-party entity such as the Social Security Administration or a treating physician that identifies a VCF-eligible condition as a basis of the disability determination. [6] For lower income categories where total expenditures exceed income, expenditures were scaled to income, so as not to reduce income for expenses potentially met by other forms of support. It was determined that the benefit to the claimants of calculating the decedents personal consumption offset as a percent of after-tax individual earnings more than outweighed the potential effect of discounting future amounts by income-specific after-tax discount rates. The following information, which is used to calculate the victims pension. The collateral source offsets will not include monies or other investments in the injured victims or decedents 401(k) accounts. If you do not appeal, we authorize payment within 20 days of the end of the 30-day appeal period. The work-life expectancies are shown in Table 2 below. The VCF will treat all conditions in the category of Upper Respiratory Diseases (URD) as equivalent. This subtraction is a standard adjustment in evaluating loss of earnings in wrongful death claims because some amount of the income the decedent would have contributed to the household would have been consumed personally by the decedent and not available to other household members. While this information is provided for general guidance, it is important to note that these are general benchmarks, and awards may vary within the statutory caps as each claim is evaluated individually on its specific facts and at the discretion of the Special Master. Moreover, the VCF will not reconsider or recalculate any component of the VCF1 award or change any assumptions made in the VCF1 calculation. When is VCF Compensation Awarded Above the Statutory Cap? VCF award amount, but there are limits on the amounts of individual awards for economic and noneconomic losses claimants suffered. Similarly, if the victim has cancer and severe non-cancer conditions, the Special Master may issue an award that makes an adjustment above $250,000 to account for multiple conditions. The VCF will consider the WTC Health Program Disability Evaluation report in combination with the facts and circumstances of the claim to determine if a lost earnings award is appropriate. Official websites use .gov Economic loss is pecuniary loss caused by an eligible condition: loss of earnings or other benefits related to employment, the cost to replace household services previously provided by the victim, certain past medical expenses, and expenses associated with a burial or memorial service in the case of a deceased victim. The maximum amount for eligible non-cancer conditions is $90,000. The cost NIOSH incurs in reimbursing treatment under the WTC Health Program. VCF Policies and Procedures Section 3: Awards and Payment Date effective November 16, 2022 When the VCF has made an award determination for your claim, you will receive a letter notifying you of the amount of your award. R45969 October 17, 2019 Scott D. Szymendera Analyst in Disability Policy 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. The latter figures $100,000 on account ofthe spouse and each dependent include a non-economic component of "replacement services loss.". For more information on the WTC Health Program List of Covered Conditions and 9/11 Victim Compensation, please contact Pitta & Baione at 844-982-2667 or [email protected]. Non-Cancer VCF Payouts. Money is also allocated to people who have been diagnosed with cancers, lung diseases, and numerous other non-cancerous medical conditions after being exposed to dust, debris, and other toxins at Ground Zero. If you have already filed a claim for reimbursement of expenses that you incurred after your certification date for the applicable condition, the VCF will not reimburse for these expenses. Section 3: Awards and Payment | VCF For eligible cancers, the non-economic award will generally range between $90,000 and $250,000, depending on the type of cancer and the medical evidence provided regarding metastasis, recurrence, and/or permanent complications. Expenses you incurred after the date of certification are not eligible for reimbursement. The VCF has an arrangement with the PSOB program to exchange information regarding the status of any claim, the amount of any award determination and payment, and the basis of the award determination. For example, if a claim is submitted on January 1, 2020, recent medical records are those dated after January 1, 2017. If you are filing a personal injury claim, in order to qualify for an economic loss award for loss of future earnings/benefits, you must first show that you have a permanent partial or total occupational disability based on an eligible 9/11-related physical condition. Income before taxes: Average annual expenditures and characteristics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2009, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). For example, many people with respiratory injuries have pulmonary function tests. This approach was intended to avoid a penalty to the victim. In some cases, the VCF will apply a computation of future residual earnings for individuals who are disabled from a specific job but who are otherwise able to perform a different occupation. This adjustment is made because work-life expectancies are based on years of expected workforce participation, which, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, include periods an individual is either working or seeking work. If you are an employee of Con Edison or Verizon, pension calculation statements from Con Edison or Verizon. This includes information about collateral offsets that apply to both economic and non-economic loss, proof of cause of death for a wrongful death claim, or a missing Exhibit 1, which allows us to receive information from SSA in support of your claim. Thus, for example, the Special Master has determined that Workers Compensation benefits that are payable only if the spouse does not remarry will be offset throughout the period of compensated loss unless evidence is submitted that the spouse in fact remarried and the benefits in fact terminated. The fund, which was opened in 2011, compensates for deaths and illnesses due to exposure to toxins at the sites of the Sept. 11 attacks. In addition to evidence of a compensable loss, you must submit information about collateral source payments that the VCF may be required to offset against a lost earnings award. In those cases, the VCF may use the later date that is, the date when the victim actually suffered a loss in earnings. If you become entitled to receive additional collateral source payments after an initial notification to the VCF, you will need to submit a new form to advise the VCF of this update. If the service or medication is provided to you by the WTC Health Program, it is not eligible for reimbursement from the VCF and you should not include it with your claim. Collateral offsets are compensation from other sources that you received or became entitled to receive as a result of your eligible injury and must be subtracted from the award. As a result, the VCF has established specific criteria about when and how you should submit your claim for medical expenses. We will obtain complete documentation of your service-connected disability compensation, including all rating decisions and all changes to the amount of your VA compensation, directly from the VA. 25 . In order to accelerate the review of claims for all claimants, the VCF will not review voluminous medical records (i.e., 75 pages or more) that are submitted without highlighting or a written guide.