Failure to Report Earnings from Online Business Scuttles Letter Carrier’s Workers’ Comp Benefits

Federal Focus

A letter carrier set up shop online, making a few thousand bucks along the way, but her failure to report it on a required form meant that she forfeited her federal workers' compensation benefits. Simply Research subscribers have access to the full text of the decision.

Case

D.R. and U.S. Postal Service, No. 24-0749 (ECAB 03/26/25)

What Happened

A letter carrier filed a traumatic injury claim (Form CA-1) alleging that she sustained multiple injuries when she slipped and fell on ice while delivering mail. The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs accepted her claim for left ankle sprain, neck sprain, thoracic sprain, and lumbar sprain. Later OWCP expanded the acceptance to include displacement of lumbar invertebral disc, lesion of the radial nerve, closed dislocation of multiple vertebrae, contusion of the left forearm, and injury to the left radial nerve.

OWCP paid the carrier wage-loss compensation. About a year later, OWCP informed the carrier that federal regulations required that she provide information relative to earnings or employment on a financial disclosure statement. On the required form, the carrier responded "no" to questions of whether she worked for an employer, was self-employed, or performed volunteer work for which monetary or in-kind compensation was received.

Roughly 7 years later, an agent for the agency's Office of Inspector General completed an investigative reported that noted that the carrier failed to report her earnings from sales she received from selling products online and related employment activity.

This activity included:

+ Online sales of approximately $6,811.45 from April 2014 through December 2015.

+ Ownership of an online store called "The Arts of Time and Life," which sold items from February 2013 through June 2016.

Additionally, the investigative report included documents from state court establishing that the carrier pleaded guilty to one felony count of the commission of fraud in the receipt of federal workers' compensation. Specifically, she was charged with falsely representing to OWCP that she had not been employed and received more than $27.734.01 in wage-loss benefits.

OWCP found that the carrier had forfeited her entitlement to compensation because she knowingly failed to disclose her outside earnings and employment activities.

The carrier requested reconsideration, claiming that she helped a friend set up the online business and that she did not receive income from it. The case came before the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board.

Rule of Law

Under FECA, an employee who fails to make an affidavit or report when required or knowingly omits or understates her earnings forfeits her right to compensation.

OWCP's regulations define earnings from self-employment as:

(1) Gross earnings or wages before deductions, including the value of subsistence, quarters, reimbursed expenses and any offer goods or services received in kind as remuneration.

(2) A reasonable estimate of the cost to have someone else perform the duties of an individual who accepts no remuneration.

Neither the lack of profits nor the characterization of the duties as a hobby removes an unremunerated individual's responsibility to report the estimated cost to have someone else perform her duties.

What ECAB Said

According to ECAB, OWCP was correct to find that the carrier forfeited her entitlement to compensation because she knowingly failed to report employment activities and earnings.

"The Board finds that the evidence of record establishes that [the carrier] operated an online store ... and failed to report her employment activities and earnings," ECAB wrote. "Accordingly, the Board finds that OWCP properly found that [the carrier] had forfeited her entitlement to compensation ... as she failed to report earnings from employment."

Takeaway

A failure to report employment activities and earnings under FECA will result in a forfeiture of a federal worker's entitlement to compensation.

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