COMPUTATION OF BENEFITS
Burial expenses
Like medical benefits, burial expenses are simply a reimbursement for services rendered as opposed to prescribed benefits payable to the worker or to surviving beneficiaries. Such expenses should be paid in the amount applicable at the time the burial services were performed. ....Melvin Christenson, Dec'd., 88 1477 (1991)
Change of circumstances (RCW 51.28.040)
The statutory provision permitting the Department to readjust compensation does not, on its face, give the Department authority to readjust the compensation rate absent an application. Further, it requires a change in circumstances and does not apply where the Department had the correct wage information but simply failed to realize its error in computation. ....Eleanor Lewis (II), 89 2474 (1990)
Support provided to dependents (RCW 51.32.050(5))
Since the expenses of maintaining the household were fixed and not reduced by her son's death, the entire amount of the deceased son's contributions, except amounts used for his food and clothing, should have been considered "support" in calculating the benefits payable to the dependent mother of the deceased worker. ....Stanley Hirsch, Dec'd.,20,797 (1964)