The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) recently published version 2.0 of its Policies & Procedures, which includes many updated or revised sections. An important section is 2.2, which contains details about economic loss and describes the evidence you must submit for financial losses, eligible expenses, lost earnings and other types of applicable losses.
Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo P.C. has extensive experience identifying economic losses and can help you present these claims to the VCF under its new guidelines.
Economic Loss: Lost Earnings and Benefits
Section 2.2 refers to changes of the Fund’s economic loss policies. The section states:
If you are physically injured as a result of an eligible condition, you can make a claim for earnings/benefits you lost before you submitted your claim to the VCF, and you can make a claim for earnings/benefits you expect to lose in the future (after submission of your claim) as a result of your eligible condition. If you are filing on behalf of a deceased victim (meaning a victim who died from an eligible 9/11-related physical condition), you can make a claim for lost earnings/benefits incurred before the victim died as a result of an eligible condition and you can make a claim for the lost future earnings resulting from the death of the victim. The VCF will determine whether the portion of the claim requesting loss prior to death (the personal injury portion of the claim) was timely registered based on the standard timeliness rules.
In general, you must submit:
(1) Evidence that you are or were unable to work as a result of an eligible condition; and
(2) Information about your earnings and benefits, so that the VCF can determine the amount of loss. Sections 2.2e-h contain information specific to victims who worked for New York City (including FDNY and NYPD) and the Federal government (including military and military reserve).
Subsections affected by the new updates include:
- Documentation of earnings history.
- Establishing past lost earnings.
- Establishing loss of future earnings/benefits.
- Loss of employment-related benefits.
- Documentation to support loss of earnings and pension benefits for members of NYCERS.
- Documentation to support loss of earnings and benefits for Federal Employees Including Military and Military Reserve.
See Section 2.3 for a detailed explanation of the methodology used to calculate future lost earnings. Visit Forms and Resources on VCF.gov for more information and other updated forms. For more information about earnings losses, visit here.
The deadline for filing a VCF claim is December 18, 2020. If you need to discuss your VCF 9/11-related injury, illness or death claims, reach out to us at (800) 962-9954 and via our contact page.
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