South Carolina General Assembly
104th Session, 1981-1982

Bill 2967


                    Current Status

Bill Number:               2967
Ratification Number:       322
Act Number                 294
Introducing Body:          House
Subject:                   Relating to death benefits under Workers'
                           Compensation
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A294, R322, H2967)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 42-9-290, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO DEATH BENEFITS UNDER WORKERS' COMPENSATION, SO AS TO PROVIDE THAT DEATH BENEFITS FOR A DEPENDENT CHILD UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE VEST IN THE CHILD AT THE TIME OF DEATH OF THE DECEASED EMPLOYEE AND CONTINUE FOR FIVE HUNDRED WEEKS REGARDLESS OF THE AGE OF THE DEPENDENT BENEFICIARY AND THAT SUCH BENEFITS VEST IN A CHILD EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER ENROLLED IN AN ACCREDITED EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION AS LONG AS THE CHILD REMAINS ENROLLED UNTIL THE AGE OF TWENTY-THREE.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Death benefits for dependent child

Section 1. Section 42-9-290 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 560 of 1976, is further amended to read:

"Section 42-9-290. If death results proximately from an accident and within two years thereafter or while total disability still continues and within six years after the accident, the employer shall pay or cause to be paid, subject, however, to the provisions of the other sections of this title, in one of the methods provided in this chapter, to the dependents of the employee wholly dependent upon his earnings for support at the time of the accident, a weekly payment equal to sixty-six and two-thirds percent of his average weekly wages, but not less than twenty-five dollars a week nor more than the average weekly wage in this State for the preceding fiscal year, for a period of five hundred weeks from the date of the injury, and burial expenses not exceeding four hundred dollars. If the employee leaves dependents, only partly dependent upon his earnings for support at the time of the injury, the weekly compensation to be paid shall equal the same proportion of the weekly payments for the benefit of persons wholly dependent as the amount contributed by the employee to such partial dependence bears to the annual earnings of the deceased at the time of his injury. When weekly payments have been made to an injured employee before his death, the compensation to dependents shall begin from the date of the last of such payments but shall not continue more than five hundred weeks from the date of the injury. Compensation under this title to aliens not residents (or about to become nonresidents) of the United States or Canada shall be the same in amount as provided for residents, except that dependents in any foreign country shall be limited to a surviving spouse and child or children or, if there be no surviving spouse or child, to a surviving father or mother whom the employee has supported, either wholly or in part, for a period of three years prior to the date of the injury, and except that the Commission may, at its option, or upon the application of the insurance carrier, commute all future installments of compensation to be paid to such aliens by paying or causing to be paid to them one-half of the commuted amount of such future installments of compensation as determined by the Commission. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit lump sum payments to surviving spouses. Provisions for lump settlement may be retroactive.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, any death benefits to which a child under the age of eighteen years of an employee is entitled under this section shall vest with the child at the date of death of the employee and continue to be paid to the beneficiary subject to the five hundred week limitation regardless of his or her age.

If at the date of death of the employee, such employee has a son or daughter eighteen years of age or older enrolled as a full-time student in an accredited educational institution, such son or daughter shall be entitled to death benefits in the same manner as though he or she were under eighteen and shall continue to receive benefits, subject to the five hundred week limitation, until the age of twenty-three; provided, however, that if a student ceases to be enrolled, except for normal breaks and vacations in accordance with schedules of the school, benefits shall permanently terminate.

Any dependent child mentally or physically incapable of self-support shall be paid benefits for the full five hundred week period regardless of age. In cases where benefits are payable to a surviving spouse and dependent children, the surviving spouse shall receive not less than one-third of the benefits paid if there are two or more children."

Time effective

Section 2. This act shall take effect upon the approval by the Governor.