If you have been injured at work, you may be worried about how you are going to manage things financially. Workers’ compensation benefits, in some cases, covers more than you may think. Here is what you should know.
In certain situations, a person could receive both workers’ comp and unemployment at the same time. For example, when a person is no longer totally disabled from work, is only partially disabled, but still cannot perform the duties of their job, and their employer refuses to take them back on light duty and with restrictions. In such cases, although the workers’ compensation benefits will be reduced to a partial rate, that worker can go ahead and apply for unemployment. Permitting you have earned enough work credits within the appropriate time period leading up to your application for unemployment, you can collect both unemployment and workers’ comp at a partial rate, which should help pay the bills.
People do receive both workers’ compensation benefits and Social Security concurrently; however, the two standards of disability are different. People who are receiving workers’ compensation benefits are often denied Social Security disability, although some people do receive both. In addition to the injury and disability caused by the work injury, the Social Security Administration considers any other type of condition you may have that causes you to be disabled from work. Many times, as people get older, other conditions limit their ability to perform their jobs. Another point to consider is that a formula based on what you were earning when you were working may reduce or offset your Social Security benefit as a result of the amount of workers’ compensation you’re receiving. Even so, there is a possibility you still could receive both.
CABS is a term used in workers’ compensation for all neck, back, head injuries incurred after March of 2007. It relates to what we still call “the new law,” although it’s not new. Typically, you will not get weekly benefits for those permanent injuries forever, Instead, upon a finding of permanency, we move toward a process referred to as “finding a loss of wage earning capacity” in which a judge reviews the person’s age, abilities, disability, the type of work they’ve done, education, and training. Based on all that information, the judge determines the percentage of the injured person’s loss of wage earning capacity.
The workers’ comp law contains a chart that sets forth the actual number of remaining weeks for which you will receive weekly benefits based on your percentage of loss of wage earning capacity. This is very significant because, for injuries that occurred before March 2007, we didn’t have to worry about these caps or the limited number of weeks for which an injured person would receive weekly benefits. CABS has brought about an even greater need for an injured person to retain a lawyer to deal with the loss of wage earning capacity process for their workers’ compensation case.
If you have been injured at work and want to know what your workers’ compensation benefits are, contact our Buffalo office today.