Connecticut Residents - Support Raised Bill 25

Raised Bill 25 is really a modest effort the undo one of the draconian changes pressed and passed several years ago by big corporatrions and their lobbyists with the objective of saving some money in workers' compensation premiums. The net effect of those insurance industry and big business changes is that injured workers in Connecticut suffer through a broken and dilapidated system where the benefits are paultry, insurance company delay is not punished but instead rewarded; where the Compensation Commissioners are overworked and without power to enter pendent lite orders during the pendancy of the claim.

Raised Bill 25 corrects one of the greatest injustices perpetrated on working senior citizens. It deals with an offset provision under the workers' compensation law. If a senior citizen is still working and suffers an injury, the employer's workers' compensation insurer is allowed to reduce the paultry workers' compensation benefits by the amount of the injured workers social security benefit. So lets put this in perspective. My Uncle Joe is 65 years old. He chooses not to retire because he hasn't saved enough for retirement and the additional cost of supplemental insurance and the prescription drug program. His years of work have also entitled him to receive social security benefits. But here's the kicker. He gets hurt on the job one week after his 65th birthday and cannot work any longer. Because he would be entitled to social security benefits and workers' compensation benefits, the insurers and their lobbying outfit the CBIA (Connecticut Business and Industry Association) think that it is alright to reduce Joe's workers' compensation benefits by the amount of his social security benefits. Doesn't seem fair to me. If he was 55 and not entitled to social security benefits he would receive both of those benefits for which he worked. If his workers' compensation benefits are reduced by the amount of the social security benefits, then this as if the state is coming in an taking away his earned federal benefit or if you look at it another way, just because Joe's a senior citizen, he gets less. What is the cost of this addional protection for our senior citizens? Less that .5%. That's right, the CBIA and the insurance industry has found another way to kick our senior citizens for just .5%.

It isn't OK to mistreat our senior citizens.