After being injured on the job and becoming disabled, one might wonder whether he or she can be eligible for both social security disability insurance (SSDI) and workers’ comp benefits. The short answer is yes, but the amount of disability payments will be affected, and you’ll need to meet some stringent criteria to qualify for SSDI. You may also qualify for one program and not the other since eligibility criteria are very different. A site for disability lawyers Richmond VA is filled with information to help you come to the right decision.
How to Qualify for Workers’ Comp?
Workers’ comp is a state-run program under which workers get compensation after being injured at work or after developing an occupational illness while employers get shielded from liability. Each state has its own set of rules and regulation regarding workers’ comp, so eligibility requirements may vary greatly from state to state.
Workers’ comp usually covers:
Hospital and medical bills
Lost wages
Rehabilitation, retraining costs (depending on your home state)
Workers’ compensation, however, does not cover your pain and suffering and other non-economic damages. You would have to file a personal injury lawsuit with the help of Law Offices of Norman J. Homen against your employer to get those, but once you have filed a workers’ comp claim, you can no longer sue your employer, unless there is intention or other strict circumstances.
Workers’ comp is designed to offer temporary financial relief to workers affected by a work-related injury or illness until they recover or get their SSDI benefits. If the workplace accident or occupational illness has permanently disabled you, you may be able to stack up the two types of benefits.
Also, if you have been severely injured or permanently disabled, and workers’ comp doesn’t cover all you medical bills and lost income, you can hire an attorney to negotiate a workers’ compensation settlement that won’t affect your SSDI benefits.
How to Qualify for SSDI
Just like workers’ comp, social security disability is a type of insurance that the government provides to workers who have been injured on the job, and who are not going to be able to return to their regular jobs for the foreseeable future. But unlike workers’ compensation, the program is federally run, not state run, and it involves a completely different set of eligibility criteria, including being permanently disabled in the wake of the workplace accident or occupational illness.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) runs this program so you’ll need to check out their resources to learn how you can qualify for SSDI benefits. This type of disability payments is awarded if:
The injured worker is left completely disabled for at least 12 months or has been affected by a work-related injury or illness that is expected to result in their death (Such conditions include cancers, but not all cancers are covered by SSDI.)
The condition that has caused the complete disability needs to be mentioned in the SSA’s Blue Book, a listing of covered disabling impairments.
The impairment needs to be severe enough to prevent the worker from performing any type of work with any type of employer, which means that he is no longer able to earn a living.
The worker needs to have enough work credits to qualify for these disability benefits. Work credits are earned during the course of your employment if you pay Social Security taxes. You can earn up to 4 work credits per year depending on your level of income and paid taxes (for 2020, you would need to earn at least $5,640 to get all the credits; for 2021, that sum climbs to $5,880). Work credits do not affect the amount of benefits, but they are required to qualify for SSDI.
You had enough years of work credits based on your age before you have become disabled (see chart below)
Image source: ssa.gov
If you are disabled but still can earn a living, your SSDI claim will be denied as the program doesn’t offer benefits for partial disability.
As a rule of thumb, starting age 31, you will need at least 20 work credits earned over the last 10 years prior to the disability. The number of required work credits during the entire duration of the employment gradually increases with age until 40 (at the age 62). Workers aged 30 or younger can qualify for SSDI with fewer work credits.
How Do Workers’ Comp and SSDI Benefits Stack Up?
The amount of total benefits when qualifying for both workers comp and SSDI benefits cannot get past 80% of your average earnings before the disability occurred. If the total benefits exceed 80% of your average current earning, your SSA disability payments will be reduced accordingly to meet the criteria. If you are out of workers’ comp, you need to notify the SSA to make the necessary adjustments to your SSDI benefits.
The two types of benefits can stack up, but the 80% limit is set in place to make sure that public funds are not being wasted. There are a few exceptions, though. You can stack up workers’ comp, SSDI, and the following publicly funded programs even if the total amount of these benefits goes beyond 80%:
VA benefits
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits
Non-federal government benefits if Social Security taxes were deducted from your income.
What’s more, private pensions, private disability insurance, and other types of privately funded disability payments do not affect the amount of SSDI benefits you can rack in.
When it comes to workers’ comp, there are scenarios in which you may qualify for it without being eligible for social security disability benefits. Under workers’ compensation laws, you are considered “disabled” if you can no longer do the work required by your current position. SSDI will cover you only if you are deemed “totally disabled,” which means that you cannot earn a living at all.
Conclusion
You can collect both workers’ comp and social security disability benefits because they are two different programs, but expect a reduction in the total amount of disability payments if the money you are entitled to under both programs gets past a certain threshold. Also, each program has a different definition of qualifying “disability” and a very different set of requirements, so you may qualify for one and not the other.