When an injured workers’ compensation claim is denied, delayed, or no total temporary disability benefits are being paid by the workers’ compensation carrier, an injured work may apply for state disability benefits through EDD (SDI).

SDI provides eligible injured workers short-term disability benefits for time off from work due to a workplace injury or illness when the workers’ compensation insurance carrier is not providing total temporary disability benefits. SDI may be available if there is a dispute regarding your eligibility for workers’ compensation total temporary disability benefits.

PRACTICAL TIP:

• If your claim is not accepted, you should most likely file promptly for SDI.
• To preserve your claim later even if it is initially denied.

When receiving SDI, it is often referred to as EDD. If you have further questions regarding SDI and workers’ compensation, please contact RP Law Group at (951) 394-3640 for a free consultation.

Understand that an injured worker should not receive both SDI and total temporary disability from the workers’ compensation insurance carrier at the same time. EDD will file a lien against the workers’ compensation case against the benefits it is paying out. Any overlap in benefits is called an overpayment.

It should be noted that while generally no double payment of total temporary disability (TTD) and SDI is permitted; there are instances when the benefit rate of SDI is higher than the TTD rate, and EDD will pay the difference.

Ultimately then, how is the benefit rate of SDI calculated? SDI is based on past earnings and equals approximately 55% of your earnings to the maximum weekly benefit amount. Keep in mind that total temporary disability benefits are equivalent to 2/3 of average weekly earnings.

No matter if it is total temporary disability, EDD, or another workers’ compensation issue, RP Law Group is glad to assist in answering your questions. Please call RP Law Group at (951) 394-3640.