Disability Benefits
(Off-the-Job Injury or Illness)
Cash Benefits
Cash benefits are 50 percent of a claimant's average weekly wage, but no more than the maximum benefit allowed. The average weekly wage is based on the last eight weeks of employment. If counting the last week in which the disability began lowers the benefit rate, it is not included in determining average weekly wage. Effective May 1, 1989, the maximum benefit allowance for any disability is $170 a week. Benefits paid by the employer or insurance carrier are subject to Social Security and withholding taxes.
Benefits are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks of disability during 52 consecutive weeks. For
employed workers, there is a 7-day waiting period for which no benefits are paid. Benefit rights
begin on the eighth consecutive day of disability. For unemployed workers who are receiving
Unemployment Insurance benefits and who become disabled more than four weeks (but within 26
weeks) after termination of employment, benefits are payable from the first day of the disability
that disqualifies them from receiving Unemployment Insurance benefits. An employer must
supply a worker who has been disabled more than seven days with a Statement of Rights under
the Disability Benefits Law (form DB-271S)
within five days of learning that the worker is disabled.