Completely Lost..

[BiGMERF]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA

Well a little about myself.

I have been working since I was 14(manual labor) and I am now 37 years old. Almost 3 years ago in December of 06 I was injured at work (Fedex). I have been on workman's comp since then with a bad back. I have a bad enough back that they want to perform surgery and fuse my spine. Something I do not want to do until I absolutely have to. I have spent countless hours researching and found to many instances of the surgery going wrong or the individual not finding relief.
Now i have 2 lawyers one for my workman's comp case and one for my Social security case.
I was just notified that my case is coming up on January 5th and I wanted to know the following. I applied in august of 08, How far back does the backpay go? does it go back to the original date of injury or does it go back to the august date (when i applied)? or does it go to dec of 08(5 months after i applied)
I currently get a workmans comp payment weekly from fedex. how will this effect my payment from social security. both back pay and payments moving forward? (if approved of course)

thank youWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[BiGMERF]

any opinions would be great

[Onderzoek]

The ALJ will decide that you are disabled or not disabled. He/she will also choose a date of onset of disability which may or may not be December 2006.

Assume established onset date is 12/06 and application date is 8/08. The entitlement date (when money starts) has to be at least 5 months after onset but no earlier than 12 monts before application. So, since the onset date is 12/06, the 5 month waiting period would be 1/07-5/07. But since the application date is 8/08, the earliest entitlement date would be 12 months earlier or 8/07.

[BiGMERF]

thanks for the reply.... any ideas how my workmans comp pay will effect the payout?

[Onderzoek]

[url=http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.05/handbook-0504.html]SSA Handbook §0504[/url]

The combination of Social Security disability and worker's compensation cannot be more than 80% of your Average Current Earnings (ACE). Various formulas are used to determine Average Current Earnings. If the combination exceeds 80% of Average Current Earnings, then SSDI is reduced while you are receiving worker's compensation or into the future if a lump sum from worker's compensation is paid that represents weekly amounts.

An example:
A person earns on average $48,000 a year. Monthly amount $4000, ACE. 80% is $3200. Worker's comp is paying $400 a week, over $1600 a month (more than 4 weeks in a month). SSDI is $1000. Combination of the two is $2600. Less than $3200 so there is no offset.

A person earns on average $24,000 a year. Monthly amount $2000, ACE. 80% is $1600. Same worker's comp and SSDI total $2600. The combination is over 80% of ACE so there will be an offset of around $1000, the entire SSDI check.

Not a simple formula to do yourself.