After extensive fact finding, public outreach, and review of public comments in the original VCF, the Special Master and the Department of Justice concluded that the most rational and just way to approach the difficult task of placing a dollar amount on the pain and emotional suffering experienced by the thousands of individuals killed or injured by the September 11th attacks was to assess the non-economic losses for categories of victims. The VCF does not premise their award amounts solely on financial losses. The Federal government originally provided funding for this program, but the $50 million congressional appropriation ($25 million in 2002, increased to $50 million in 2005) was exhausted in early 2016. [2] Average combined effective income tax rates by earnings bracket were calculated based on an analysis of IRS data for the most recent tax years available: 2007, 2008, and 2009. 1. 7. If you were compensated fully through sick pay or other compensation, that means you have not lost compensation. The lowest compensation amount was $87.02. 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." Non-economic loss is sometimes called a pain and suffering award. ), If you receive a disability pension, documents showing the injuries or conditions that the pension is based upon. If you are an employee of Con Edison or Verizon, pension calculation statements from Con Edison or Verizon. Therefore, the VCF may ask you to obtain updated LOAs if they are older than one year at the time of our request. Age, start of loss and compensable income: Establish the victims age and compensable income at death or at the time the victim was determined to be unable to work by a governmental entity, or had to reduce work, and suffered a loss of income as a result of eligible conditions. The VCF will calculate such loss on a case-by-case basis using documentation submitted by the Personal Representative. For these claims, it may be necessary to provide a disability determination or other documentation that explains the relationship between the loss of earnings and the eligible condition. Under the VCF Act, the VCF does not compensate for potential or anticipated future medical expenses. For example, the Special Master considered that over the course of their projected careers, younger victims could expect to cross into higher income brackets, and be subject to corresponding higher income tax rates, on account of experience-based real lifetime earnings growth in excess of economy-wide national wage increases. There are two different types of compensation available. 2. You must complete and submit a consent for release of SSA information (Exhibit 1 to the Claim Form) in order for the VCF to obtain this information. To calculate the non-economic award for additional dependents, add an additional $100,000 for each dependent beyond the third dependent. Below is a sample of some of our recent awards for our clients: $4.4 million. 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. For single individuals without dependents, Housing, Education and Health are also included. During the course of an individuals career, the rate of annual real life-cycle growth tends to gradually decline until a peak real earnings level is attained. Although CPS and other data used to study lifetime earnings profiles indicate that peak real earnings typically decline at some point, in calculating life-cycle earnings growth in excess of inflation and overall productivity adjustments for victims, the Special Master has assumed that peak earnings are maintained. If the VCF, with reasonable effort, cannot clearly identify the required documentation necessary to support each claimed medical expense, the VCF reserves the right to deny your medical expenses claim. The VCF considers the fact that you became more (fully) disabled after your VCF1 award was issued as evidence that your same, eligible condition has worsened and that you suffered losses that were not previously fully compensated. In many cases, these issues are best addressed in the context of an appeal hearing. 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. For example, if a claim is submitted on January 1, 2020, recent medical records are those dated after January 1, 2017. The methodology applies adjustments for taxation, risk of unemployment, employee contributions, and personal consumption for deceased claims before applying the annual limit. 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. 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. As shown in Table 7 on page 55, PSOB benefits are offset against the total award, including non-economic loss, whether they were awarded for death or disability. For each NYPD victim who is claiming loss of future earnings and benefits and has provided the appropriate authorization, the NYPD sends the VCFthe following information, which the VCF uses to calculate economic loss: The NYPD also sends the VCF information/documentation regarding the basis of the NYPD victims disability, if applicable. 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. The VCF will treat all conditions in the category of Upper Respiratory Diseases (URD) as equivalent. To that end, the sections below provide detailed information about how we generally evaluate and calculate compensation for non-economic and economic loss. 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. 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. In certain situations, we may deactivate your claim and stop our review if we are missing critical information. Work-life expectancies are based on actual experiences and behavior of the general population and measure the estimated time in years an individual of a given age will remain in the labor force (either employed or actively seeking work), allowing for age-specific mortality risks and rates of workforce transitions. A schedule containing age-specific earnings growth rates reflecting the combined inflation, overall productivity, and life-cycle increases is shown in Table 3 below. The VCF can award a 9/11 cancer victim up to $250,000 for pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. . Therefore, if PSOB has paid a benefit to the eligible victim, then the VCF will offset this amount. 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. If you have a personal injury claim and you later amend your claim and submit the information, the VCF will be able to calculate your economic loss. 3. The VCF does not receive medical documentation directly from FDNY. 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. Personal Injury Claims:If you have already filed a claim for medical expenses as part of your personal injury claim form submission, the VCF will not review the expenses as part of our initial review of your claim. First, you need to show that you actually lost compensation. The collateral source offsets will not include monies or other investments in the injured victims or decedents 401(k) accounts. The VCF has made initial award determinations on 34,464 eligible claims (see chart below), and has issued at least one amended award determination on . (generic name is listed first, followed by brand name). If you are submitting a claim for loss of future earnings/benefits from a union, or from Con Edison or Verizon, you must submit: If your employer is not listed above but offers a defined benefit pension, you must submit evidence that your employer offers a defined benefit pension and how that pension was calculated, such as a pension calculation statement, retirement statement, or a pension option letter. The VCF will then compute the amount of past and/or future lost wages in light of these factors (as explained below). (2) A document that demonstrates the amount of the expense that you have paid out- of-pocket, as explained below. 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 ). Mesothelioma. The lower the after-tax discount rate, the higher the present value of presumed economic loss. If you are physically injured as a result of an eligible condition, you can make a claim for earnings/benefits you lost before you submitted your claim to the VCF, and you can make a claim for earnings/benefits you expect to lose in the future (after submission of your claim) as a result of your eligible condition. There are three types of economic loss: loss of earnings/benefits, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and replacement services loss. Claims that have more complex compensation information take more time to review. Examples of the types of tasks that are considered for replacement services compensation are services that the victim provided to the family, such as cleaning, cooking, child care, home maintenance and repairs, and financial services. 15-108. Such a statement is most helpful if it provides a timeline and details on the medical treatments you have experienced. This section describes the evidence you must submit to substantiate your claim for lost earnings. 25 . 800-887-7299 ENEnglish ESSpanish Our Team Meet Dan Hansen Meet Troy Rosasco Our Team Why Choose Us 9/11 Victim Programs Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) WTC Health Program (WTCHP) Wrongful Death VCF Claims VCF Eligibility & Coverage Appeals & Amendments VCF Proof of Presence Claims Procedures Deadlines Pain & Suffering Damages Claims seeking only non-economic loss are the simplest and fastest to review. The VCF will review these benefits on a case-by-case basis. What are the VCF payouts and how likely you will get one? It is not possible to define and categorize in advance every possible collateral source deduction. 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. 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). For example, if you left the workforce more than one year before the onset of your eligible disability, the VCF will consider the reasons you originally left the workforce and the probability that you would have returned to the workforce were it not for your eligible condition in determining the extent of your earnings and benefits loss. In addition, if you filed your initial claim before December 18, 2020, and you did not claim medical expenses in your initial claim, you may file an amendment for medical expenses, and we will consider it, subject to the other requirements discussed in this document. or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. 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. [9] The present value adjustments will be based on the period of presumed economic loss (which is in turn based on the age of the victim). Following the decision of the Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor, 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013) (finding Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional) and pursuant to Department of Justice policy, all lawful same-sex marriages will be recognized if they were valid in the place where the marriage was celebrated. Any additional factors influencing military pay are assumed to be included in your reported military pay and will not be compensated separately. Please keep this in mind when considering whether to seek certification of additional conditions through the WTC Health Program. If you believe you meet this threshold, you should request special circumstances consideration on appeal after your initial award has been determined. The cost NIOSH incurs in reimbursing treatment under the WTC Health Program. Because your VCF1 non-economic loss exceeds the maximum amount allowed by law for those conditions ($90,000), no additional losses will be awarded. Treatment expenses billed to you as a co-payment, after denial of insurance coverage, or that you pay because they fall within your insurance deductible, may be reimbursed if appropriate documentation is submitted. Here is a look at the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) and the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.. Facts From 2001 to 2003, the September 11th Victim Compensation . This generally includes the final Medical Board report that identifies the final diagnosis and recommends approval of a WTC disability, as well as any prior Medical Board reports issued that address the claimants conditions and recommend approval, disapproval, or deferral on the claimants disability application. Add this amount to the total computed above. Here are popular VCF payout questions answered: Expenses you incurred after the date of certification are not eligible for reimbursement. If services are no longer relevant, they will not be compensated (for example, child care services will not be compensated after the child reaches age 18). [9] The blended discount rates, before tax adjustment, shown in Table 5 imply real interest rates in excess of inflation of 2.1%. To maintain the privacy of individual claimants and beneficiaries, the Fund will not list names or any other identifying information that might easily lead to the identification of individuals who have received or been notified of awards. Suffering from constant nasal inflammation, stuffy nose, pain and swelling around your nose and in your sinuses, and reduced taste or smell are common indicators. It is important that you respond to all missing information letters within the timeframe specified in the letter. service, disability). That tragic day nearly 3,000 people perished as the planes crashed, and WTC buildings collapsed. The VCF is required to consider your non-economic loss in the context of the current statutory caps. The regulations set a presumed award for non-economic losses sustained by the victim, and the victims spouse[1] and dependents, because of the victims death as a result of the September 11th aircraft crashes or subsequent debris removal: $250,000, plus an additional $100,000 on account ofthe spouse and each dependent of the decedent. A lock 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 9/11 attorneys at Gregory J. Cannata & Associates are highly experienced and regarded in gathering and reviewing the appropriate information to help ensure the success of an award. For example, a victim who has a respiratory condition that significantly restricts the victims ability to participate in activities of daily living and recreation, or that is progressive and not effectively treated, may have a higher non-economic award than a victim who has a mild respiratory condition and another mild condition which have not had a significant effect on their activities of daily living. If you are not receiving a pension, submit a letter from your union/Con Edison/Verizon stating that you are not receiving a pension. You should not contact NYCERS or NYSLRS directly to obtain this information. See Table 7: Which Offsets Apply to Which Types of Loss. Medical Evaluation Board and/or Physician Evaluation Board report). We will still review your claim to see if it includes reimbursable expenses that you incurred before the applicable condition was certified. If the governmental agency determines that the cause of disability is a condition that the VCF has found eligible, then the disability determination will provide a basis for a determination of future loss of earnings/benefits. Thus, a determination by SSA that you were. For this reason, if any spouse or dependent (e.g., a minor or disabled child or an elderly parent) of the deceased victim is receiving these benefits, you must submit a separate Social Security Administration Consent Form (Exhibit 1 of the Claim Form) for the surviving spouse and/or dependents when submitting the claim. Three principles guide this inquiry. Note: In deceased claims, once we have finalized substantive review of your compensation claim, you will not be able to amend your claim to provide any missing information that you did not previously submit. We are committed to representing our fellow New Yorkers to secure all of the compensation your sacrifices have entitled you to. First, the VCF strives to be fair to all claimants. For example, if the victim left the workforce more than one year before death without a permanent partial or total occupational disability determination based on an eligible 9/11-related physical health condition, the VCF will consider the reasons the victim originally left the workforce and the likelihood that the victim would have returned to the workforce were it not for the victims eligible condition in determining whether the victim actually lost compensation as a result of an eligible condition. The VCF may obtain information directly from the WTC Volunteer Fund regarding VCF claimants with WTC Volunteer Fund claims, which will allow the VCF to investigate the basis of any disability benefits, the amount of such benefits, and any other information that may be relevant to the VCFs computation of loss. If balances are insufficient to pay the full amounts awarded, claimants will receive payments in proportion to the fund's balance. If you wish to seek a waiver, please contact the VCF Helpline. Do not use this form if you have had a decrease in a collateral source payment and would like to request that the VCF review your award. If you believe that your eligible condition has caused a loss of earnings that is distinct from any loss of earnings due to an ineligible condition, you must provide evidence to the VCF to substantiate your claim. 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. 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. 300mm-22(a). 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. Offsets Applied to The total amount of the claimed medical expenses incurred due to eligible conditions exceeds $5,000. The Special Master has the discretion to adjust the amount of offsets to exclude premiums or assets that were accumulated by the victim through self-contributions paid into a life insurance program to build up a tax-deferred cash value. As explainedin Section 5, amendments on deceased claims are not otherwise permitted. 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. 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. This includes determining the types of loss being claimed. Typically, the VCF's . For those who receive Workers Compensation benefits from New York State, New York amended its Workers Compensation statute in 2002 to prohibit insurance carriers from asserting liens against awards from the VCF. NYCERS will only accept LOAs dated within one year of the date the VCF (or the law firm for requests already sent directly to NYCERS) sends the request for information to NYCERS. The VCF makes one award for the non-economic loss, also referred to as pain and suffering. If you know that payments or benefits you have received are subject to a lien, you must notify the VCF. If the breast cancer is disabling, a victim is entitled to additional compensation for lost wages. Because claims for reimbursement of out-of-pocket medical expenses require the submission and review of significant documentation establishing that the claimed medical expense was related to your eligible condition, that you personally paid for the expense out of pocket, and that the expense was incurred prior to your WTC Health Program certification for the applicable condition, processing these claims takes time and can delay your award. The VCF will not compensate for any travel expenses you incurred while seeking medical treatment, including the cost of gas, public transportation, hotels, and meals, except in extraordinary circumstances. 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. If you are receiving a pension (either directly or as a beneficiary of a decedent), you will be required to submit: In general, the VCF will use the following procedures and assumptions for determining future lost earnings for both deceased and injured victims: 1. The start of loss date is typically the onset date of disability.
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