It may seem obvious that certain occupations have the propensity to lead to injuries, such as occupations where a person works with heavy equipment, with dangerous chemicals or at great heights. However, even people with office jobs could be injured at work, for example, if they trip over something on the ground or strain to lift something heavy. When a person from Newark is injured at work, they may wonder whether they should seek workers’ compensation benefits or Social Security disability benefits, or both. When determining what course of action to take, it is important to understand how workers’ compensation benefits affect Social Security disability benefits.
According to the Social Security Administration, if a person receives workers’ compensation benefits, it will reduce how much they receive in disability benefits. Workers’ compensation benefits are awarded after a person is injured or made ill on-the-job. If a person is receiving both SSD benefits and workers’ compensation benefits, the total amount of benefits that person receives cannot be more than 80 percent of what the person’s average earnings were prior to their disability. The SSA has several formulas that may be used to determine what a person’s average current earnings were.
The SSA should be notified if a recipient of disability benefits receives a lump sum payment of workers’ compensation benefits, as it may affect how much a person receives in SSD benefits. The SSA should also be notified if a person’s current amount of workers’ compensation benefits goes up or down, as this could also affect how much a person receives in SSD benefits.
As this shows, while it is possible to receive both workers’ compensation benefits and SSD benefits, the amount of SSD benefits received will go down if a person also receives workers’ compensation benefits. Because this can be a complicated situation, those who are receiving SSD benefits and workers’ compensation benefits may want to discuss their situation with an attorney, to ensure they are being appropriately compensated.