Is the Missouri Second Injury Fund going broke?
Missouri’s Second Injury Fund is nearly broke putting a burden on injured employees throughout Missouri.
With 28, 000 pending claims against the Second Injury Fund, injured Missouri workers, trying to obtain what is rightfully theirs, are having a lot of trouble doing so. You see, the value of just half of these claims is likely in the liability range of $140 million. Now that is a large number when you consider that the Second Injury Fund, put in place to protect employees who are injured at work, has only $12.3 million.
There are injured workers in the State of Missouri, many of whom are in the St. Louis Metropolitan area, who have successfully litigated and won their case against the Second Injury Fund who are waiting to be paid. These are people who are totally disabled and have little to no income during any given month. These injured workers, however, don’t have the same power as the State to tell their bill collectors that they are not going to pay right now.