How is Disability Insurance Different from Workers’ Compensation?
Amid the legal jargon of insurance policies and employment information pamphlets, understanding how disability insurance and workers’ compensation work can be tricky. Both have to do with injuries and illnesses. However, one form of benefits is offered on the basis of a work related injury or illness, and the other is provided due to a preexisting medical condition not caused by a person’s employment.
What is Workers’ Compensation?
The first form of benefits is that of workers’ compensation, or compensation provided to employees who have suffered an injury or contracted an illness while on the job. These benefits include covering the cost of treatment for injury or illness, and sometimes compensation for wages lost while undergoing treatments and recovering. Workers’ compensation is a program instated and run by the states, with employers covering the majority of costs and workers accepting lower wages in exchange for coverage in the event of an injury or illness.
In order to qualify for workers’ compensation benefits, employees must provide proof to employers that an accident occurred while they were working, or that an illness has developed due to working conditions. Without the proper documentation, workers’ compensation claims may be declared invalid. In the event that this takes place, employees will then be expected to cover the costs of treatments, and wages lost will not be paid. Proper paperwork and reporting to supervisors will help speed the process and keep both employees and employers out of any legal proceedings.
Employment Injury Insurance Social Safety Net, Phnom Penh, Cambodia by ILO in Asia and the Pacific, on Flickr. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
What is Disability Insurance?
Unlike workers’ compensation, disability insurance is instated when an injury or illness is not related to a person’s employment. The benefits provided are usually short-term, covering wages lost while an illness, injury, pregnancy, or childbirth recovery make it difficult for people to work. Disability insurance is state mandated, and is paid for through employee payroll deductions.
Employees who have been hurt at work in the past or are working in an environment that continually creates illness can apply for disability insurance, but cannot receive benefits from both disability insurance and workers’ compensation at the same time. If a workers’ compensation claim is denied or delayed by an employer, employees can apply for and receive disability insurance benefits until the claim is approved or processed by that employer. In addition, if workers’ compensation benefits are less than those provided by disability insurance, the difference in wages lost and treatment expenses may be paid through the disability insurance program.
Both workers’ compensation and disability insurance are offered to workers in the event that unforeseen accidents take place. Knowledge of these programs will aid workers who experience an injury in or outside of the workplace, giving a cushion until recovery takes place or other personal arrangements are made.
How to Claim
To submit a disability insurance claim, either check online for a state disability insurance website and file an electronic form, or get in touch with insurance providers for information. Both can provide workers with information regarding their status and claims for disability insurance. To file for workers’ compensation, report work related injuries to a supervisor immediately and acquire the proper documentation provided by the employers. Providing such documentation will ease and quicken the process of filing said claim, and will ensure that there are no problems in providing evidence of injury or illness.
Turn to workers’ compensation if injured on the job, and seek out disability insurance options when faced with health concerns from normal activities.
