Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Thursday, January 03, 2002 3:29 AM Social Security Benefits Is it true that you will reduce victim comp payments by the total amount of Social Securty survivor payments to each family affected by 09/11? Social Security benefits may be taxable while victim comp payments are not. Can survivors withdraw their Social Security Survivor applications and refund their Social Security survivor payments in order to avoid the reduction of the victim comp payments by these SSA benefits? If not, then an exclusion in the law should be writen that precludes SSA survivor benefits, resulting from 09/11, from any taxation. If survivors of 09/11 have not filed for SSA benefits are they required to file for SSA benefits? If survivors do not file a claim for SSA benefits will there still be an offset by the amount of the SSA benefits they could have received? What Social Security benefits will be offset from 09/11 victimim comp payments? (Children's , Surviving Spouse, Parents, Lump sum death benefit of $255.00). A typical 09/11 case involves the payment of SSA benefits to the surviving spouse and the children. The surviving spouse will receive benefits until the last child attains age 16 or will continue to receive benefits if the child is disabled before age 22 and remains disabled. Children's benefits continue until they are age 18, or age 19 if in secondary school, or until death if they are disabled before age 22 and the disabililty prevents work. A surviving spouse can reapply for widow's or widower's benefits when they attain age 60 or 50 if they are disabled. Will these future benefits also be excluded from the victim's compensation benefits? SSA benefits are earned benefits. Life insurance payments result from payment for an insurance policy. A pension is earned as a result of years of employment. It seems to be unfair to offset victim's comp payments by their SSA benefits, pension or life insurance.benefits . I do not believe that the victim's salary should be considered when determining the amounts payable from this fund.. The victim's compensation fund is made up of federal taxes. My position is that the only fair distribution of the victim's comp payments is to divide the total by the number of survivors and have a cap on the total payable to each family. I do not believe there should be any offset for life insurance, pensions, Social Security benefits, etc. If a victim bought life insurance or paids FICA tax why should the surviving family members be punished for their resourcefulness? Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001311.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-03