How Social Security Disability Benefits and Workers’ Compensation Correlates

Many workers who have suffered from job-related injuries actually have a lot of options that will provide them financial assistance to make ends meet. Two of the most common benefits that a wage earner can receive are the social security disability benefit and worker’s compensation.

However, although the said benefits can be both received by an injured wage earner, these two greatly affects each other.

Until now, many people are still unaware of the difference and correlation between the two; hence the need to educate the public.

Here’s a simple distinction between the two:

Social Security is a helpful program provided by the government to wage earners with long term disabilities that hinder them from pursuing their job, whether the injuries they sustained are job-related or not. Meanwhile workers’ compensation helps wage earners who were injured in their workplace or were affected by a workplace-related illness. Its benefits include medical care and cash assistance for the lost wages and damages.

Now, if a recipient received both of the above said benefits, the total amount of earnings from those two cannot exceed 80% of the average earnings before the recipient eventually became disabled. Any amount exceeding 80% of the wage earners former average earnings is deducted from the social security disability benefits until a beneficiary reaches the age of 65 or until workers’ compensation stops.

However, recipients must take note that disability payments that came from private insurance companies do not affect Social Security Disability benefits, only those that came from government sources do.

Filing for both social security disability benefits and workers’ compensation would definitely be a very long way process. In fact, there is no room for mistakes during the process, as such may result in being denied. It is still best to have your social security disability lawyer to guide and represent you with your claims.

Common Mistakes to Avoid after a Social Security Disability Income Denial – Part II

After the initial list of the most common mistakes that a recipient must avoid after filing for a social security disability claim, below are the additional points to avoid after being denied with your initial application.

• Not providing updated info with the Social Security Agency. Take note that the agency is responsible for making disability determinations. In return, a recipient must also be responsible in providing health details to the state Disability Determination Services (DDS). Don’t hesitate to provide the true and correct details since they are asked only for the purpose of updating the records that the agency already has.

• Not keeping copies of previous transactions. Proofs of your prior transaction records such as applications, forms, and other records should be kept in a safe place to avoid extra cost, time, and efforts if ever a disability examiner requests for those records again.

• Recipients often underestimate the extent of their disability. A lot of recipients tend to declare at the appeal level that their condition hasn’t changed because they are afraid of modification. They should at least inform the agency whether they are experiencing more pain or were hospitalized again.

• A lot of recipients overlook the essence of representation service during the process. In truth and in fact, those claimants who reached the hearing level cases have their own representatives. A social security disability lawyer can provide such services right from the filing for social security disability through appeals.

Now, the best way to avoid such mistakes, as well as to have a great deal in getting your social security disability income claim, is to take the risk of paying for a representative right at moment of filing for social security disability. This is until the final resolution of the appeal since you do not have to pay for the representative, unless he or she won the case in favor of the client.