If you do decide to return to work, there are factors that can affect your ability to collect workers’ compensation benefits.
When you are injured on the job, there are both physical and emotional challenges that you have to overcome. At a time when stress may seem overwhelming, is also a time when you have to worry about the legalities of workers’ compensation benefits.
Unlike other states, in the state of Missouri, an employer is not required to offer rehabilitation services a part of the workers’ compensation package. They are also not required to help an employee with a retraining program if the injury is extensive enough to alter their ability to perform in the same work capacity after the injury.
If you do decide to return to work, there are factors that can affect your ability to collect workers’ compensation benefits. They are, the benefits that you have received through the system, the wages that you receive with your new position versus what you were making in your previous one, if you receive a partial or a full settlement for workers compensation, and the extent of the damage that you sustained.
If you are injured, and you find another position that pays equal wages to what you were receiving before your injury, then the benefits will likely be discontinued. If you were injured and you aren’t able to find a job that pays equally, then you might still be eligible to collect compensation, but the amount will likely be decreased.
What are the different types of wage loss benefits available?
Temporary total benefits are those that are paid to a person who is injured on the job and is no longer able to work in the same capacity that they had prior to the injury. These type of benefits are paid by the percentage of loss in wages due to the work-related injury.
Temporary partial benefits are those that are paid to the injured worker who has only temporarily been injured, but can still earn the same amount of money regardless of the disability. The benefits are paid in the same manner, as a percentage of what the person earned before versus what they earn while they are temporarily disabled. Once they can return to their normal capacity, the benefits typically cease.
If you are having a hard time getting fair compensation due to a work-related injury or disability, it is important to speak with a St. Louis workers’ compensation lawyer who can help you through the complexity of workers’ compensation and how the benefits are structured. Many different arrangements can be made when you return to work.