Missouri Approves First $50K in Line of Duty Claims

Missouri workers’ compensation regulators recently approved payment of compensation to families of individuals killed in the line of duty to protect the public.

The Missouri Labor Department’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) mailed the first checks in the program after approving the two claims filed in 2010. These Missouri families each received $25,000 from the Line of Duty Compensation Fund, for a total of $50,000.

This money was made possible through the Line of Duty Compensation Fund established by the Missouri Legislature in 2009. Since the inception of the fund, five claims for compensation have been filed and two, so far, have been approved by the DWC for payment.

Benefits are available for survivors of firefighters, volunteer firefighters, law enforcement officers, air ambulance pilots, air ambulance registered professional nurses, and emergency medical technicians who are killed in the line of duty when:

The individual was on duty at the time of an injury that resulted in death;

The individual was engaged in the active performance of the duties of his or her profession; and

The injury resulting in death occurred as a result of the individual’s performance of his or her duties.

Upon approval by the division, a $25,000 death benefit shall be awarded to the estate of the individual killed in the line of duty.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the division director makes a determination approving benefits to the claimant. The death benefit is in addition to any other pension rights, death benefits, or other compensation to which the claimant may otherwise be entitled to by law.