My mom is a teacher in the state of NY, (not NY City). She was injured on the job. She is receiving social security disability and workers comp checks through the school districts workers compensation insurance carrier (POMCO). There is no offset because her salary was high and she is not over the 80%.
She is a member of the NYS Teachers Retirement System (vested pension), and she is eligible to apply for a disability pension (she is incapacated from all employment for at least 12 months). The retirement system said it does not matter to them if she is receiving workers comp as long as the district themselves are not paying her the workers comp (they are not), and she is off payroll (she is), so there’s no problem there.
I am concerned there might be some sort of stipulation/offset from POMCO, her employer’s workers compensation carrier and the workers compensation checks they send once they learn she is receiving the disability pension. Can you please clarify if there will or not be an offset from POMCO or recommend who I may contact to clarify? (Please note, even with the disability pension my mom will not be over the 80% and she already has a workers comp. attorney but he does not deal with the NYSTR disability pension).
Thank you for your time and help!

Hi,

I'm not familiar with either POMCO or NYSTR, so I don't know if receipt of a NYSTER pension would affect POMCO. With regard to Social Security benefits, though, the pertinent issue is whether or not your mother paid Social Security taxes on her earnings on which the NYSTR pension would be based. If she did, then such a pension would have no effect on her Social Security disability benefits nor future retirement benefits. However, if her wages were exempt from Social Security taxes then her NYSTR pension could result in a lower Social Security benefit rate due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). For more information on the WEP provision, refer to this Social Security publication: https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.

Best, Jerry