Recovering Lost Wages When You’re Too Hurt To WorkTM
When a workplace injury has forced you off the job, you’re dealing with health problems, medical treatment and a loss of income. You can’t get paid if you can’t work.
This could be one of the hardest times you’ve ever faced financially. It’s natural to be scared.
One of the main forms of workers’ compensation, indemnity benefits, is designed to give you relief.
Indemnity benefits replace some of your lost wages. You get a check in the mail every week. The weekly checks help keep you financially stable, so you can move forward with your life after your injury.
To be sure you get all the indemnity benefits you’re entitled to after you were hurt at work, call Mitchell & Associates today.
Workers’ compensation for your lost wages.
What are indemnity benefits?
Indemnity benefits are basically the wages you’ve lost because you can’t work.
However, you don’t get your full pay rate. Instead, you get two-thirds of what you were making in the four full weeks you worked before you were hurt, up to $619 per week.
Your first check is due 14 days after your injury if you are too hurt to work. You’ll only receive one week’s of benefits at first even though two weeks have passed. If you’re still out after six weeks you’ll get a check for the first week and continue to receive checks until you’re cleared to go back to work.
If you have a problem getting your workers’ compensation checks, call Mitchell & Associates as soon as you can.
How Much of Your Lost Wages Are Covered?
A common misconception among workers is that they will get 100% of their lost wages under workers’ comp.
But that’s not what happens.
This is what indemnity benefits cover:
- About two-thirds of your wages
- Up to a limit of $650 a week (in 2017 in Louisiana)
The workers’ comp system uses the last four weeks of wages you earned before your incident to determine the amount of your indemnity benefits.
You can see that if you earned higher wages, you will need to brace for a significant reduction in your weekly income under indemnity benefits.
How Long Do Indemnity Benefits Last?
You should get indemnity benefits no later than two weeks after you reported your injury to your boss.
Important:
To get your workers’ comp claim started, make sure to report your injury right away. You have a 30-day deadline after the date of your incident.
Your lost wages benefits should last as long as your doctor says you cannot work because of your workplace injury.
You get indemnity benefits when you fit into these categories:
- Temporary Total Disability (TTD)
is the most common kind of indemnity benefit. Under TTD, your injuries are bad enough that you cannot work at all for a period of time. You get these until your doctor says you can work again. - Supplemental Earning Benefits (SEB) cover you if you can still work but your injury has left you with a long-term disability. Under SEB, you get benefits to help make up for the drop in your earning power for up to 10 years.
- Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) sends you payments if you suffer a permanent anatomical loss to the body part you injured in the accident.
- Permanent Total Disability (PTD) pays benefits when your injury was so severe that you can never work again. You should receive workers’ comp benefits indefinitely.
- Death Benefits pays you when an immediate member of your family died in a workplace accident. The workers’ comp system has a formula to determine how much family members receive.
Besides indemnity benefits, the other types of workers’ comp cover your health care resulting from your injury and possible job retraining.
If you’ve been hurt at work, Mitchell & Associates will provide an initial assessment of your situation for free.