If you are injured at work and are unable to do your usual job, you may be eligible for temporary disability benefits during your recovery. Temporary disability benefits are payments for lost wages because either 1) your treating doctor determined you are unable to do your usual job for more than 3 days, and 2) your employer doesn’t offer you other work that pays your usual wages while you recover.
Disability Benefit Types
There are 2 types of temporary disability benefits and RP Law Group can help you with this. If it is determined that you can’t work at all during the recovery period, you may receive temporary total disability benefits. However, if you can do some work while recovering and your employer offers it, you may receive temporary partial disability benefits if your wages while recovering are below a maximum limit set by law.
Disability Benefit Amounts
Determining the exact amount of temporary disability benefits due can be complicated; however, RP Law Group is available to answer your questions. As a rule, temporary disability benefits are 2/3 of the pre-tax wages you lose while recovering from the industrial injury. However, you can’t receive more than the legally set maximum weekly amount or less than the minimum weekly amount.
If your injury is covered by workers’ compensation, temporary disability benefits are due within 14 days of your employer learning that you have an industrial injury and that your treating doctor determines that your industrial injury prevents you from doing your usual work.
Temporary disability benefits may stop for any one of several reasons including your doctor returning you to work in some capacity. If you have questions, please contact RP Law Group at (951) 394-3640.