| Compensation for Black Lung Claims |
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| The Black Lung Benefits Act covers total disability claims of United States' miners suffering from pneumoconiosis (aka black lung disease), which was contracted due to their employment. Such miners are awarded monthly cash benefits as well as medical benefits. Payments to dependent survivors are also provided for in the Act and include the surviving spouse, children, and dependent parents and siblings.More... |
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| Supplemental Security Income Redeterminations |
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| Eligibility for Supplemental Security Income benefits turns on various criteria including that the individual have available only "limited" income and resources. Once the individual's eligibility is established, periodic redeterminations will be conducted to ensure that the individual still meets this eligibility criteria and is receiving the appropriate amount of benefits. Generally, a redetermination will take place for each individual every one to six years.More... |
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| Traveling Employees |
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| Generally, if an employee is required to travel as a part of his employment, he is covered by workers' compensation for the duration of the trip. There is a distinct exception to this rule when the employee markedly departs from the business trip to attend to a personal matter. In those jurisdictions following the majority rule for compensability above, an employee will usually be covered for an injury resulting from, for example, sleeping in a hotel or eating in a restaurant.More... |
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| Representation and the SSDI Process |
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| When a claimant seeks social security disability benefits, he may select an individual to represent him in that endeavor. The representative may act on the claimant's behalf at all levels of the administrative proceedings. However, accepting the representation responsibilities does not entitle the representative to a fee for his services absent approval by the Social Security Administration (SSA).More... |
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| Resident Employees Who Are Not On-Call |
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| The general rule is that employees who reside on the employer's premises are protected by workers' compensation coverage if they are required to reside on the premises and are on-call twenty-four hours per day or the injury resulted from a risk associated with the employee's living conditions given the requisite living arrangement. When the employee is not on-call and has specified work hours, though he is required to live on the employer's premises, gaining workers' compensation benefits for an injury off the employer's premises is somewhat difficult. When the resident employee is injured outside his work hours and off the employer's premises, he must show a strong causal link between the injury and his employment. This causation requirement is magnified and must be found more compelling than the showing required for on-call employees. More... |
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