Payment of detention benefits.

§ 61.300 Payment of detention benefits. (a) The Office shall pay detention benefits to any person listed in § 61.1(a) who is detained by a hostile force or person, or who is not returned to his or her home or to the place of employment by reason of the failure of the United States or its contractor to furnish transportation. Benefits are payable for periods of absence on and subsequent to January 1, 1942, regardless of whether the employee was actually engaged in the course of his or her employment at the time of capture or disappearance. (b) For the purposes of paying benefits for detention, the employee is considered as totally disabled until the time that the employee is returned to his or her home, to the place of employment, or to the jurisdiction of the United States. The Office shall credit the compensation benefits to the employee's account, to be paid to the employee for the period of the absence or until the employee's death is in fact established or can be legally presumed to have occurred. A part of the compensation accruing to the employee may be disbursed during the period of absence to the employee's dependents. (c) During the period of absence of any employee detained by a hostile force or person, detention benefits shall be credited to the employee's account at one hundred percent of his or her average weekly wages. The average weekly wages may not exceed the average weekly wages paid to civilian employees of the United States performing the same or most similar employment in that geographic area. If there are eligible dependents, the Office may pay to these dependents seventy percent of the credited benefits. (d) The Office may not pay detention benefits under any of the following conditions: (1) The employee resides at or in the vicinity of the place of employment, does not live there solely due to the exigencies of the employment, and is detained under circumstances outside the course of the employment. (2) The person detained is a prisoner of war detained or utilized by the United States. (3) Workers' compensation benefits from any other source or other payments from the United States are paid for the same period of absence or detention. (4) The person seeking detention benefits is a national of a foreign country and is entitled to compensation benefits from that or any other foreign country on account of the same absence or detention. (5) The employee has been convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of any subversive act against the United States or any of its allies.