Can federal workers’ comp benefits be retroactively applied?

Retroactive payment of injured federal worker benefits is a real possibility in some cases. Retroactive payment of benefits means that you may be able to receive benefits from a designated past date, and not just from the day of your claim’s first approval, or the day that you first requested them.

Retroactive payment can help provide much-needed financial relief, and even get you out of debt or repair your credit score if you took out loans to pay for treatment and cater for your daily living expenses and bills, and even bring you back from near-bankruptcy since you’ll be able to use these funds to get out of the financial hole costly medical procedures and care you may have needed in the interim put you in.

In order to qualify for retroactive payments as an injured federal worker, the following must be present:

You must get our case accepted as a valid workers’ compensation claim and you must provide medical documentation that you were unable to work because of the accepted conditions for the requested period.

Calculating retroactive payments for injured federal workers is done by OWCP, who will determine when you became eligible for your benefits by examining when the condition or injury actually happened. Calculations include things like medical expenses and compensation for wage loss, and once this amount is determined, it will be paid as a lump sum, and will not be combined with your ongoing benefits.

Remember, retroactive benefits can happen especially if you were unable to report your injuries in a timely manner due to one reason or another, such as being in a coma, not being in the right frame of mind, dealing with the trauma and resultant depression of your injury, OWCP’s delay in accepting your case, or any other reason that OWCP deems valid.