Is My Job Required to Pay Me While I Am Away Due to Injury?

If you have suffered injury at work and your medical provider has told you that you should not be working with your injury, you may wonder what your options are for covering your expenses during your lost time. Depending on the nature of your case, you may qualify for temporary income benefits (TIBs), paid to you by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance provider.

TIBs allow workers to receive pay if an injury or work-related illness cause the workers to lose some or all of their wages for more than seven days. The benefits are 70 percent of the difference between a worker’s average weekly wage and the wages the worker is able to earn after injury.

If you earned less than $10.00 an hour before your injury and were injured before September 1, 2015, your benefits for the first 26 weeks will equal 75 percent of the difference between your average weekly wage and the wages you are able to earn post-injury.

How Long Do TIBs Last?

TIBs are just that – temporary. You will no longer be eligible for benefits after the earlier of:

• The date you reach maximum medical improvement
• The date you are physically able to earn your average weekly wages at the same rate as you were prior to your injury
• At the end of 104 weeks from your eighth day of disability

Unfortunately, many workers who should receive temporary income benefits face denial by workers’ comp. Sometimes, this is a matter of missing, incorrect or inaccurate documentation and is solvable by contacting the insurance provider directly. However, sometimes it is necessary to engage in a lengthy appeals process to get the benefits you need. In those situations, an Austin workers’ comp attorney can help.