Many people in the Scranton area get hurt or sick while on the job. Many others suffer from disabilities of various types and need assistance from the Social Security Administration in the form of disability benefits.
However, among these people, there will be a subset who suffer a permanent disability because of a work-related illness or injury.
To give an example, a Pennsylvanian who suffers a severe spinal cord injury at work may also find himself or herself unable to return to the workforce at all, much less his or her old job.
There’s no rule against filing for both workers’ compensation benefits and for Social Security. In fact, it may be advisable to do so in order to maximize compensation.
After all, while workers’ compensation pays for medical bills and reimburses part of a victim’s lost wages, the payments will not always cover a family’s losses after a serious workplace accident.
Both workers’ compensation and Social Security are no-fault programs. This means that a victim does not have to prove that anyone else was responsible for his or her condition before collecting benefits.
However, it is important to remember that these are two separate benefits. Workers’ compensation is offer through the State of Pennsylvania, while the Social Security Administration is a federal agency.
This means that applying for each benefit will require a separate process.
Furthermore, workers comp and Social Security Disability have their own criteria and other laws which guide whether a worker will receive benefits and the amount of the benefits.
Finally, the Social Security Administration will enforce a cap on the amount of benefits it will pay each month to a person who is also drawing workers’ compensation for lost wages.
Specifically, between work comp and Social Security benefits, a person will only be able to get 80% of what he earned from his job.
So, for an example only, if a person earned $3,000 a month before the injury, then her maximum compensation between both programs is $2,400.
So, if she receives $1,500 in workers’ compensation, then the most the Social Security Administration will pay is $900, even if the worker is otherwise entitled to more.
