Employer Tries to Withhold Workers' Comp Due to Disability

If you are deemed eligible for Social Security disability benefits because the SSA considers you disabled, and are subsequently fired, know that you are still typically qualified to receive workers' compensation, if applicable. Unfortunately, some employers might try to get out of this responsibility by using your disabilities to claim that you would not normally make money anyway, but one recent case showed that they cannot get away with this tactic.

According to Risk and Insurance, a Nebraska woman was declared to be disabled by the SSA for mental conditions. She was on disability, but eventually found a job as a truck driver. After she was injured due to her truck going off the road, she was fired, as her employer declared that her negligence caused the accident. She then filed for workers' compensation since her mental condition appeared to get worse after the accident.

Unfortunately, her employer refused to pay the benefits, citing that since she had received disability benefits at one time, she had no earning capacity. Thus, the company officials assumed that they owed her no benefits, despite the fact that she had been making a wage through them long after she got the disability benefits. In fact, she worked there for just over a year.

The Nebraska Supreme Court sided with the woman, ordering the company to pay the benefits she was owed and then some. This was because the company had failed to pay within a month of being informed of the former employee's disability after the accident, and had not properly proved that she had been negligent.

Clearly, this employer was attempting to take advantage of the fact that the woman had received disability benefits. However, since she was working for over a year, she obviously had some earning power, which means that she was owed workers' compensation just like anyone else would be. If you are having issues involving past or present disability payments, contact a lawyer today.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida disability lawyers, LaVan & Neidenberg, represent over 5000 disability claimants. Our disability attorneys have experience with cross examining agency-appointed medical and vocational experts and take time when speaking with you about your disability claim. Call us today at 1-888-234-5758 for a FREE legal consultation. There is NO OBLIGATION to hire our firm and there are NO FEES unless one of our trained disability lawyers wins your case.