Postal Worker Loses $37K in SSDI Benefits for Failure to Advise of OWCP workers comp payments

There are offsets between your federal workers comp benefits paid by OWCP and benefits you receive from SSA. When you are receiving monetary benefits from OWCP and you receive disability benefits from SSA, you must notify SSA, as there may be a reduction of your SSD benefit and if you don't stay on top of this you will ultimately have a significant overpayment that you are required to repay. Similarly, an OWCP recipient who is in the FERS retirement system and begins receiving SSA retirement benefits must notify OWCP immediately of this as there is an offset that runs the other way; OWCP gets a credit for the portion of your SSA retirement annuity that arises from your federal employment. Just because you tell OWCP that you have started receiving the SSA retirement does not mean you are ok, you need to follow up and make sure your claims examiner has requested the necessary information from SSA. If OWCP fails to follow up, you will still have an overpayment and likely be required to repay it.

Here is a link to a story about a USPS employee who received an overpayment from SSA due to failing to notify SSA of receipt of OWCP benefits:

https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/workers-compensation/b/recent-cases-news-trends-developments/archive/2018/05/11/united-states-postal-worker-loses-37k-in-ssdi-benefits-for-failure-to-advise-of-workers-comp-awards.aspx