You may feel inclined to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits if you incur a bodily injury that inhibits you from returning to your job post, at least for the foreseeable future. But if you got injured on your worksite while performing your job duties, you may also be interested in enrolling in workers’ compensation benefits. With this, you may wonder if you can collect both simultaneously. Further, you may want to know if and how one influences the other. Well, with that being said, please continue reading to learn whether a workers’ compensation award can affect your SSDI benefits package and how an experienced New Jersey SSDI attorney at The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur can help you get the right amount of financial aid needed to recover properly.
Will a workers’ compensation award affect my SSDI benefits?
First of all, it is possible to collect both workers’ compensation and SSDI benefits at the same time, so long as you qualify for both to begin with. But as a general rule of thumb, you should know that the amount of financial aid you receive in total from both cannot exceed 80 percent of what you earned before your incurred bodily injury or physical disability. Therefore, if this amount goes beyond 80 percent, a deduction will be taken from your SSDI benefits. This is otherwise known as the “offset rule.”
As an example, say that you used to make $5,000 per month prior to your disability. Well, the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a complex formula, primarily using your average indexed monthly earnings and your primary insurance amount, to calculate your monthly SSDI benefits amount. But say that the number the SSA lands on is $2,750. Then, say that you simultaneously get $2,500 per month in workers’ compensation benefits, for a total of $5,250. This is, evidently, greater than what you originally earned per month. And the rule says that you cannot earn more than 80 percent of $5,000 per month, which is $4,000. In this case, the SSA may reduce your payout to $1,500 per month.
Which benefits program should I apply for first?
While you can receive a workers’ compensation award and SSDI benefits simultaneously, you should put your best efforts toward one application at a time. Usually, our team would recommend focusing on your workers’ compensation claim first. This is because this claim may have a faster processing time and thereby offer quicker financial relief while you wait to hear back from the SSA on their SSDI benefits decision. This is not to mention that workers’ compensation benefits require a tighter turnaround time. That is, you may only have 90 days to notify your employer of your injury and subsequent intention to apply for benefits.
For more information on if and when to pursue these benefits programs, please don’t hesitate to contact a skilled New Jersey SSDI attorney from The Law Offices of Sheryl Gandel Mazur. We look forward to hearing from you and later on helping you.
