N.Y. Workers' Comp. Law § 33
Compensation or benefits due under this chapter shall not be assigned, released or commuted except as provided by this chapter, and shall be exempt from all claims of creditors and from levy, execution and attachment or other remedy for recovery or collection of a debt, which exemption may not be waived provided, however, that compensation or benefits other than payments pursuant to section thirteen of this chapter shall be subject to application to an income execution or order for support enforcement pursuant to section fifty-two hundred forty-one or fifty-two hundred forty-two of the civil practice law and rules. Compensation and benefits shall be paid only to employees or their dependents, except as hereinafter in this chapter provided. In the case of the death of an injured employee to whom there was due at the time of his or her death any compensation under the provisions of this chapter, the amount of such compensation shall be payable to the surviving spouse, if there be one, or, if none, to the surviving child or children of the deceased under the age of eighteen years, and if there be no surviving spouse or children, then to the dependents of such deceased employee or to any of them as the board may direct, and if there be no surviving spouse, children or dependents of such deceased employee, then to his estate. An award for disability may be made after the death of the injured employee.
N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 33