Texas Workers Compensation Death Benefits: Formula, Deadlines, and DWC Form-042

When an employee dies from a work-related injury or illness in Texas, the workers' compensation system provides income replacement for the surviving family. These benefits are substantial and long-lasting — but they expire entirely if you miss the filing deadline, and they have specific distribution rules that many families don't know about.

The Benefit Calculation: 75% of Average Weekly Wage

Texas workers' compensation death benefits are calculated at 75% of the deceased employee's average weekly wage (AWW) at the time of the injury or illness that caused the death.

The AWW is typically calculated using the employee's earnings over the 13 weeks before the date of injury, divided by 13. The TDI-DWC (Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation) sets both a maximum and minimum weekly cap on these benefits, which adjusts annually based on the state average weekly wage.

This 75% replaces a significant portion of lost income for the family. It's not a lump sum; it's an ongoing weekly benefit payment.

Who Receives the Benefits — and in What Proportion

The death benefit is divided between the surviving spouse and eligible dependent children:

• Surviving spouse: 50% of the 75% benefit
• Dependent children: The remaining 50%, divided equally among them

Children remain eligible for benefits until:

• Age 18
• Age 25 if the child is enrolled full-time in an accredited college or university

If there is no surviving spouse and no eligible children, the benefit may extend to other qualifying dependents (parents, siblings) who were financially dependent on the deceased.

If the surviving spouse remarries, the ongoing weekly payments stop — but Texas law doesn't just cut off benefits at that point. Upon remarriage, the spouse receives a final lump-sum payment equal to 104 weeks (two years) worth of benefits. This is in lieu of future ongoing payments.

The Burial Benefit

TDI-DWC also reimburses the person who paid for the funeral up to $10,000 for workplace injuries and deaths occurring on or after September 1, 2015. Whoever paid the funeral expenses — the surviving spouse, another family member, or a friend — can claim this reimbursement separately from the ongoing income death benefits.

Submit funeral expense receipts directly to the workers' compensation insurance carrier of the deceased's employer. The carrier processes burial benefit claims independently from the income replacement claim.

How to File: DWC Form-042

The primary form for claiming workers' compensation death benefits in Texas is Form DWC-042 (Claim for Workers' Compensation Death Benefits), available from the Texas Department of Insurance at tdi.texas.gov/wc/employee/deathben.html.

Submit the completed form to TDI-DWC and to the workers' compensation insurance carrier of the deceased's employer.

You will need:

• The employee's name, date of birth, Social Security number
• Date of death and description of the work-related incident or illness
• Your relationship to the deceased
• Proof of dependency (marriage certificate, birth certificates for children)
• For children claiming to age 25: proof of full-time enrollment at an accredited institution

The One-Year Deadline — Do Not Miss It

You have exactly one year from the date of the employee's death to file Form DWC-042. This is a hard statutory deadline. If you miss it, the claim is permanently barred and no workers' compensation death benefits will be paid, regardless of how clear-cut the workplace death was.

The one-year clock runs from the date of death, not the date the death was linked to a work-related cause. If there's any ambiguity about whether the death was work-related (for example, a delayed-onset occupational disease), file the claim before the one-year mark even if the investigation is ongoing. A timely-filed claim can be supplemented with additional documentation; a late-filed claim cannot be accepted at all.

If you're reading this more than 10 months after the death, file immediately.

What Counts as "Work-Related"

Texas workers' compensation covers deaths from:

• Traumatic workplace injuries — falls, machinery accidents, vehicle accidents while working
• Occupational diseases — illnesses caused by workplace exposures over time (asbestosis, silicosis, certain cancers tied to chemical exposures)
• Acts of violence in the workplace — assaults that occurred in the course of employment

What's generally not covered:

• Deaths from self-inflicted injuries
• Deaths from intoxication if the intoxication was the sole cause
• Deaths from a willful violation of a safety regulation if the violation was the worker's own

If there's any question about whether the death qualifies as work-related, consult a Texas workers' compensation attorney. Many work on contingency for death benefit claims.

Workers' Comp Does Not Preclude Other Claims

Workers' compensation death benefits and other survivor benefits are separate programs. Claiming workers' comp does not prevent you from also claiming:

• Social Security survivor benefits based on the deceased's earnings record
• TRS or ERS pension death benefits if the deceased was a public employee
• Life insurance proceeds (private policies)
• Crime Victims' Compensation if the death involved a violent crime — though CVC is a payer of last resort after workers' comp is exhausted

Workers' compensation does affect some third-party injury claims: if you also have a civil lawsuit against a responsible party (a negligent third party who wasn't the employer), the workers' comp carrier may have a subrogation interest in the recovery.

This Is One Piece of a Larger Benefits Picture

If your spouse died in a workplace accident or from an occupational disease in Texas, workers' compensation is typically the most immediately valuable financial claim to file. But it runs parallel to several other benefits that require separate applications.

The Texas Survivor Benefits Navigator organizes all of it — the forms, the deadlines, and the order to file — so you don't miss what your family is owed.

See more Texas guides →