In accordance with 20 CFR 402.35(b)(1), the Acting Commissioner of Social Security gives notice of Social Security Ruling, SSR 97-3. This Ruling, based on an SSA Regional Chief Counsel opinion, concerns whether the Social Security Administration should give effect to an amended stipulation on a prior lump-sum workers' compensation settlement and whether workers' compensation offset was properly computed on the basis of the amended stipulation. Although this case involves a Minnesota workers' compensation stipulation, this Ruling addresses an issue that is becoming a problem nationwide, i.e., the practice of obtaining an addendum to a workers' compensation settlement merely to state that the workers' compensation settlement was based on a low weekly rate using life expectancy, thus attempting to avoid the offset provisions of section 224 of the Social Security Act. This Ruling clearly illustrates the Social Security Administration's policy of not being bound by the terms of a second, or amended, stipulation that would circumvent the workers' compensation offset provisions of section 224 of the Social Security Act.
- Document Number
- 97-26258
- Published in
- United States of America
