STATE EDD DISABILITY INSURANCE
When an injured workers’ compensation claim is denied, delayed, or no total temporary disability benefits are being paid by the workers’ compensation company, injured workers may apply for state disability benefits through EDD (SDI).
SDI provides eligible injured workers with short-term disability benefits for a work-free time due to an injury or illness in the workplace when the workers’ compensation insurance company is not providing total temporary disability benefits. SDI may be available if there is a dispute regarding your eligibility for workers’ compensation for total temporary disability benefits.
To be eligible for SDI, a person must be employed or actively seek work at the time of disability; must have lost income due to disability; earned at least $300 of which SDI deductions were retained for a perverse period, and be under the care of a medical professional for the first eight (8) days of disability. It is worth noting that the injured worker must remain under medical care to be eligible for SDI or total temporary disability through workers’ compensation.
* PRACTICAL TIP: If your claim is not accepted, chances are you will file immediately for SDI *
* to preserve your claim later, even if you initially refuse. *
When receiving SDI, it is often referred to as EDD. If you have further questions about 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 company at the same time. EDD will file a levy against the workers’ compensation case against the benefits you are paying. Any overlap in benefits is called an overpayment.
It should be noted that, while double payment of total temporary disability (TTD) and SDI is generally not allowed; there are cases where the SDI benefit rate is higher than the TTD rate, and EDD will pay the difference.
Ultimately, how is the SDI rate of profit calculated? SDI is based on past earnings and equals approximately 55% of your earnings to the maximum amount of weekly profits. Note that total temporary disability benefits equal 2/3 of the average weekly income.
When considering issues of these benefits, also keep in mind that EDD SDI will run for 52 weeks in most cases, and in accepted cases, the total temporary disability will be maximized by 104 weeks.
Whether it’s a total temporary disability, EDD, or other workers’ compensation issue, RP Law Group is pleased to help answer your questions. Call RP Law Group at (951) 394-3640.
