WASHINGTON, Nov. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The National Academy of Social Insurance has released its 25th annual report Workers Compensation Benefits, Costs and Coverage – Data for 2020 which contains updated data for 2016 – 2020. The report contains nineteen tables, seven figures and five appendices with national and state level data relevant to worker compensation outcomes. This data ranges from benefits, costs, and coverage to US Department of Labor data on injuries and deaths, as well as data on the overlap between Social Security disability insurance and the workers’ compensation system.

“This report provides further evidence of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our Social Security systems,” said Jennifer Wolf, chair of the Workers’ Compensation Data Study Committee and president of the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Insurers Association. “In addition to the impact on employment, the pandemic has put pressure on workers’ compensation and other disability benefit programs to keep budgets afloat. The Academy publication offers policymakers, researchers and advocates a unique insight into the scale and changes within worker compensation programs in the first year of the pandemic.”

In addition to the usual data for a five-year study period, this year’s report also highlights the year-on-year change in benefits, costs, and coverage between 2019 and 2020. In the first year of the pandemic, total benefits and total costs decreased by 6.5% and 7.2%, respectively; more than the 6.1% drop in jobs covered. Standardized (per $100 of covered wages), the pandemic-era benefit and cost declines were even greater, at 7.9% and 8.8%, respectively. The performance decline was due to a 12.8% decline in standardized medical services; compensation payments fell by only 3.1%. And while these declines in standardized costs and benefits continue a decades-long trend, the declines in 2020 were…