Whether you develop a repetitive motion injury at work or suffer a severe, traumatic injury due to a workplace accident, you may need time off to heal.
A leave of absence can quickly lead to financial problems for the average New York wage earner. With a high cost of living and constant bills rolling in, foregoing income for weeks at a time could lead to debt and other financial problems.
You shouldn’t force yourself to try to work when your injury affects your job performance or gets worse because of your job responsibilities. How can you pay your bills if you can’t do your job?
Filing for New York workers’ compensation benefits
Most New York employers are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance coverage. If you get hurt at work, workers’ compensation will pay for necessary medical care. You can also make a claim for reimbursement for some of your lost wages.
Typically, you can start to receive short-term disability benefits after the first seven days you have missed work. If you eventually miss 14 days or more, you will receive coverage for those first seven days. Otherwise, they go unreimbursed. Your workers’ comp disability benefits will last until you can get back to work, assuming you have supporting medical evidence of an ongoing work-related disability.
A worker can receive up to two-thirds of their average weekly wage through workers’ compensation. Wage replacement benefits are not taxed. While two-thirds of your wages likely will leave you with gaps in your budget, you should be able to cover basic expenses until you return to work.
What if you can’t go back to the same job?
In some cases, work injuries are significant enough to permanently prevent someone from returning to their occupation. If you will no longer be able to work the same job and your earning potential goes down, permanent partial disability benefits can cover some of the difference between what you used to earn and what you earn after your injury. If you can’t work at all, you may qualify for total permanent disability benefits.
Get more information
To better understand the benefits available through workers’ compensation, contact an attorney who is experienced in workers’ comp law.
