How Much Financial Help Can You Get For Your Medical Condition?
For some people, the circumstances of their medical condition make it possible for them to take part in more than one type of monetary benefit. To qualify for both workers' compensation and Social Security you must have a condition that checks off several boxes, and the rules about how much you can get are somewhat complicated. Read on to learn more about the requirements for both of these programs and how you may get benefits from both of them.
Workers' Comp
From your first day on the job, you are covered by this employer-paid form of coverage. While it primarily covers injuries and work-related illnesses that are relatively short-lived, in some cases your work-related injury or illness turns out to be more serious and long-lasting. For instance, if your injury involves an amputation or a head injury, it could be permanent and therefore affect your ability to work for the rest of your life.
Social Security Disability
When that work-related injury is ruled to be a permanent one, you may also be qualified to get monthly Social Security benefits. This is a federal government program that pays workers who can no longer work at their jobs and the medical condition must appear on the list of approved conditions to qualify. The timeline to get approved for benefits is a long one; often it takes months or even years to finally get benefits. The good news, however, is that you can be reimbursed for the time period between the time you become disabled and the time you are finally approved with something called back pay.
Getting It Together
There are no rules that say you cannot get both worker's comp benefits and Social Security benefits all at the same time, but there are some total income limitw to abide by. The Social Security Administration will place what is known as an "offset" on the Social Security benefit that reduces it to a certain amount. In general, you can only receive about 80% of your pre-injury salary level in total from both programs. It should be noted that this offset continues until you reach full retirement age, when you will be able to earn the full amounts from both workers' comp and Social Security.
What to Understand About Payment Structure
In most cases, your workers' comp benefit for your permanent injury can be made in several ways: lump sum, weekly, monthly. It's very important that your workers' comp attorney take care in setting up the payment so that you can take full advantage of both workers' comp and Social Security by structuring the payments correctly.
For more information, visit a website such as https://www.oxnerpermarlaw.com/.