EEOICPA Compensation: The Part B and Part E Amounts for Energy Workers and Their Survivors
The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, EEOICPA, compensates people who became ill from work in the nation's nuclear weapons program, and their survivors. It has two parts with different amounts: Part B sets lump sums, and Part E adds amounts for impairment and lost wages. This page quotes the Act, and the tool below applies its amounts to yours.
Part B in one sentence: “a covered employee, or the survivor of that covered employee if the employee is deceased, shall receive compensation for the disability or death of that employee from that employee's occupational illness in the amount of $150,000.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384s(a)(1))
Apply the Act's amounts to your claim
Choose the part of the Act the claim is under. For Part E, enter the impairment rating points and the years of wage loss in each band; for a Part E survivor, the years of severe wage loss. The tool applies the Act's amounts and its Part E limit.
The whole-person impairment rating, in percentage points, that the Labor Department attributes to the covered illness.
Calendar years, up to normal retirement age, in which the illness held wages within the upper band of the Act's two bands, quoted below.
Calendar years, up to normal retirement age, in which the illness held wages at or below the lower band, quoted below.
What the Act sets for the claim
Impairment: 0 points at $2,500.00 each, $0.00 (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(1)(B)).
Wage loss: 0 years with wages above 50 and not above 75 percent of the average, at $10,000.00 each, and 0 years not above 50 percent, at $15,000.00 each: $0.00 (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(2)(B)).
Together $0.00, within the Part E limit of $250,000.00 (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-12).
This applies the amounts the Act sets to the program and the figures you enter. It does not decide that an illness or a facility is covered, rate an impairment, or count years of wage loss; the Labor Department decides those.
EEOICPA Part B: the lump sum
“a covered employee, or the survivor of that covered employee if the employee is deceased, shall receive compensation for the disability or death of that employee from that employee's occupational illness in the amount of $150,000.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384s(a)(1)) “A covered employee shall receive medical benefits under section 7384t of this title for that employee's occupational illness.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384s(b))
One illness is handled differently: “A covered employee shall, to the extent that employee's occupational illness is established beryllium sensitivity, receive beryllium sensitivity monitoring under subsection (c) in lieu of compensation under paragraph (1).” (42 U.S.C. § 7384s(a)(2))
When the employee has died, the order of payment begins this way: “If the covered employee is survived by a spouse who is living at the time of payment, such payment shall be made to such surviving spouse.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384s(e)(1)(A))
Uranium workers paid under RECA
“An individual who receives, or has received, $100,000 under section 5 of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (42 U.S.C. 2210 note) for a claim made under that Act” (42 U.S.C. § 7384u(a)), “or the survivor of that covered uranium employee if the employee is deceased, shall receive compensation under this section in the amount of $50,000.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384u(a)) “The compensation and benefits provided in subsections (a) and (b) are separate from any compensation or benefits provided under that Act.” (42 U.S.C. § 7384u(c))
Energy employees compensation under Part E
Part E adds two amounts: “The amount of contractor employee compensation under this part for a covered DOE contractor employee shall be the sum of the amounts determined under paragraphs (1) and (2), as follows:” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)) The first is for impairment: “The employee shall receive an amount under this paragraph equal to $2,500 multiplied by the number referred to in clause (ii) of subparagraph (A).” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(1)(B)) The rating itself: “a minimum impairment rating shall be determined in accordance with the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(b))
The second is for lost wages, measured against “the average annual wage of the employee for the 36-month period immediately preceding the calendar month referred to in clause (i), excluding any portions of that period during which the employee was unemployed;” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(2)(A)(ii)) It counts the calendar years in which “the employee's annual wage exceeded 50 percent of the average annual wage determined under clause (ii), but did not exceed 75 percent of the average annual wage determined under clause (ii);” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(2)(A)(iii)(I)) and those in which “the employee's annual wage did not exceed 50 percent of the average annual wage determined under clause (ii).” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(2)(A)(iii)(II))
For those years: “$10,000 multiplied by the number referred to in clause (iii)(I) of subparagraph (A); and (ii) $15,000 multiplied by the number referred to in clause (iii)(II) of subparagraph (A).” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-2(a)(2)(B))
And a ceiling: “For each individual whose illness or death serves as the basis for compensation or benefits under this part, the total amount of compensation (other than medical benefits) paid under this part, to all persons, in the aggregate, on the basis of that illness or death shall not exceed $250,000.” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-12)
Say an employee has an impairment rating of 30 points from a covered illness, 4 years in the upper wage-loss band and 6 in the lower. Impairment is $75,000, wage loss $130,000, together $205,000.
Part E for survivors
“The survivor shall receive the amount of $125,000, if the Secretary determines that” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(a)(1)) the employee would have been entitled for a covered illness and “it is at least as likely as not that exposure to a toxic substance at a Department of Energy facility was a significant factor in aggravating, contributing to, or causing the death of such employee.” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(a)(1)(B))
Larger categories turn on years of wage loss: “The survivor shall receive the amount of $150,000, if paragraph (1) applies to the employee and the Secretary also determines that there was an aggregate period of not less than 10 years,” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(a)(2)) and “The survivor shall receive the amount of $175,000, if paragraph (1) applies to the employee and the Secretary also determines that there was an aggregate period of not less than 20 years,” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(a)(3)) Both count years in which the employee's wage did not exceed the lower band of the average.
“The survivor of a covered DOE contractor employee to whom more than one amount under subsection (a) applies shall receive only the highest such amount.” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(b)) A covered spouse is one who “means a spouse of the employee who was married to the employee for at least one year immediately before the employee's death.” (42 U.S.C. § 7385s-3(d)(1))
Getting help with an EEOICPA claim
This site is not a law firm, does not refer anyone to a lawyer, and cannot say whether a claim will be approved. The questions that decide a claim are whether the work was at a covered facility, whether the illness is covered, the impairment rating, and the years of wage loss.
Bring records of employment at the facility with dates, the medical records of the diagnosis, any impairment rating, earnings records for the years before and after the illness, and any RECA award.
What this page does not cover
It quotes the Act as the 2024 edition of the United States Code prints it, not the Labor Department's regulations or procedures, which this site's research could not open. It does not cover which facilities and illnesses are covered, the Special Exposure Cohort, dose reconstruction, or how an impairment rating is made.
Part B and Part E are separate parts of the Act; the tool applies each part's own amounts and does not add them together.