Alaska social security disability
Alaska Disability Lawyers: The Type of Workers' Comp Payment Decides Whether Social Security Is Reduced
Alaska protects your Social Security from some workers' compensation payments and not others. Temporary and permanent total are protected. Permanent partial impairment and reemployment benefits are not, and a settlement that does not name the payment type is treated as offsettable.
What is unusual is not the arrangement itself but where Alaska draws the line inside it. Alaska sorts payment by payment, which means the answer for any particular claimant sits in the wording of their compensation paperwork rather than in the state's reputation. One hearing office decides Alaska claims, Seattle, with a satellite office in Anchorage.
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Alaska payment types that leave Social Security alone
2009
Year Social Security reversed its own reading of Alaska's law
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Hearing office deciding Alaska claims, with a satellite in Anchorage
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Payment by payment
How Alaska Workers' Compensation Affects a Social Security Disability Claim
Neither are reemployment benefits, the stipend paid under an approved retraining plan, which are offsettable as well.
It depends entirely on which kind of payment you are receiving. Alaska reduces its own compensation when a worker also draws Social Security disability, but Social Security only recognizes that arrangement for some of the payment types.
Temporary total, temporary partial and permanent total are recognized, and for those the instruction is not to impose an offset. Permanent partial impairment is not recognized and is offsettable. Neither are reemployment benefits, the stipend paid under an approved retraining plan, which are offsettable as well.
Worth setting expectations before the paperwork question: this is not a judgment about how seriously anybody is hurt. A permanent partial impairment rating can follow a devastating injury and still fall on the offsettable side, because the line is drawn by category rather than by severity.
The sentence in your settlement
Why an Unspecified Alaska Settlement Reduces Your Disability Benefit
Because Social Security's rule for silence is to treat it as offsettable. Its instructions say that settlements and ratings which do not specify the type of payment involved are offsettable under the disability provisions, and the same goes for any workers' compensation benefit category created after the state's arrangement was enacted.
The consequence is uncomfortable and worth stating plainly. An agreement that stays vague about what is being paid, perhaps because the parties wanted it that way, is treated as the kind that reduces the federal benefit. Nobody has to decide against you for that to happen; the silence does it.
There is also a window most people do not know about. A compromise and release in Alaska generally needs Workers' Compensation Board approval before it binds. Where the worker is represented and medical benefits are not being waived, it can become final on filing with the Board, so the window in which anything can change is shorter than most people expect.
W hen the agency changed its mind
The 2009 Change of Position on Alaska Disability Offsets
It is a question worth asking rather than one to assume the answer to.
Social Security used to read Alaska's law differently, and it changed that reading in 2009 after its own lawyers looked at the statute again. The change is treated as effective from July of that year.
The fear this creates in anyone with an older claim is that they were treated under a rule the agency has since abandoned and that nothing can be done. Not necessarily. The agency's own guidance describes how the change applies to cases already decided, and its worked example turns on ordinary events like a redetermination or a change in the compensation rate rather than on anything a claimant has to prove.
We can tell you which side of the line each payment type falls on today. What no one can tell you from the outside is whether a particular old file will be revisited, because that depends on what is in it and on rules about when a decision can be reopened. It is a question worth asking rather than one to assume the answer to.
What is not counted
Alaska Payments That Do Not Reduce Social Security Disability
Two worth naming, because both come up here and neither is obvious. The Alaska Fishermen's Fund, which covers medical treatment and care for licensed commercial fishermen injured in fishing-related activity, on shore in Alaska or in Alaska waters, is medical only and is not offsettable.
Interest and penalties paid on a compensation claim are also outside it. Where a claim has been contested and the insurer ends up paying more than the benefit itself, the extra is not compensation for this purpose and does not reduce the federal benefit.
Where your case is decided
Which Hearing Office Decides Your Alaska Disability Claim?
One of two, and one of them is in Washington. Social Security's hearing office locator assigns all three Alaska field offices, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, to the Anchorage satellite under Seattle.
Anchorage is a satellite of Seattle, which means it shares Seattle's service area rather than holding one of its own. Where a source contradicts itself, the answer is to check rather than to read it out, and we do that against Social Security's own locator on the first call.
Distance is the other half of it, and the answer to distance is format. Most hearings are held by phone or by video, and you can ask for one in person, so a claimant in Fairbanks or Juneau does not usually travel for one. If you want to appear in person, Social Security schedules that with the office holding your case, and it pays travel costs above seventy-five miles.
Whichever office it is, the assignment follows the Social Security field office serving your address.
The two offices
Every Hearing Office That Decides Alaska Disability Claims
Service area lines name Social Security field offices rather than cities or counties, which is how the assignment is actually made.
One hearing office decides Alaska claims: Seattle, Washington. Anchorage is a satellite office. Seattle sits outside Alaska.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office and updates it monthly, so check the office that takes your claim.
Places we serve in Alaska
Alaska Places We Serve
We represent claimants across Alaska, and the hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Alaska SSDI Questions: Payment Types, Settlements and Hearing Offices
Which Alaska workers' compensation payments leave my Social Security alone?
Temporary total, temporary partial and permanent total. For those three, Social Security's instructions are not to impose an offset, so the federal benefit is paid in full. Permanent partial impairment is different and so are reemployment benefits, and both of those do reduce it. The dividing line is the type of payment, not the size of it and not how badly you are hurt.
My settlement does not say what type of payment it is. Does that matter?
More than almost anything else on this page. Social Security's instructions say that settlements and ratings which do not specify the type of payment involved are offsettable. So an agreement that stays vague about what is being paid gets treated as the kind that reduces your federal benefit, whatever the parties had in mind. The wording is worth attention before anyone signs.
Social Security changed its position on Alaska in 2009. Does that affect an older claim?
It can. The agency reversed its earlier reading of Alaska's law and treats the change as effective from July 2009, and its own guidance sets out how that applies to cases already decided. Whether an older file gets revisited depends on rules about when a decision can be reopened, and the agency's example turns on things like a redetermination or a change in the compensation rate. It is worth asking about rather than assuming the answer was fixed years ago.
Is my compromise and release final once I sign it?
Not on signature. Alaska's rules are that a compromise and release generally needs Workers' Compensation Board approval, though where the worker is represented and medical benefits are not being waived it can become final on filing with the Board. That gap is short but it is real, and it is the last point at which anything about the agreement can change.
Does the Fishermen's Fund count against my Social Security?
No. The Alaska Fishermen's Fund covers medical treatment and care for licensed commercial fishermen injured in fishing-related activity, on shore in Alaska or in Alaska waters, and Social Security's instructions treat it as medical benefits only, which are not offsettable. Interest and penalties paid on a compensation claim are treated the same way and do not reduce the federal benefit either.
Alaska has an office in Anchorage. Why is Seattle the office of record?
Have it confirmed rather than read off the table. Social Security's hearing office locator lists Anchorage as a satellite office at Suite 610, 188 W Northern Lights Boulevard, serving the Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau field offices. Its parent is Seattle, which is the office of record for Alaska claims. We check the current assignment against Social Security's own locator on the first call.
Settling an Alaska comp claim? The wording reaches your federal benefit.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours. Tell us where you filed and we will tell you which office your address routes to. We work from Lebanon, Tennessee, with consultations by phone or video. There is no Alaska office and none is implied.