Temporary disability

Compensation for lost work time

Temporary disability benefits compensate injured workers for time lost from work while the injured worker recovers from medical restrictions. Workers who cannot return to modified duty while they recover receive temporary total disability (TTD) benefits; those who can return to modified duty receive temporary partial disability (TPD) benefits commensurate with the level of their disability. Most accepted disabling claims (ADCs) have temporary disability benefits, which may be paid for the initial claim, new or omitted medical conditions, aggravation of accepted conditions, or engagement in vocational assistance training.

The last major legislation affecting temporary disability benefits was SB 485 (of 2001), which raised the ceiling on the rate of temporary disability benefits from 100 percent to 133 percent of the statewide average weekly wage. It also established supplemental disability benefits in addition to temporary disability benefits. These supplemental benefits are paid for time loss from additional jobs when workers have multiple jobs and are not able to return to them. The supplemental disability is paid from the Workers’ Benefit Fund.

The first table below provides the number of claim resolutions each year. The second table shows the average temporary disability days paid by type of claim resolution. Note that insurers do not report the days of paid temporary disability for claims resolved by a CDA, so these numbers are estimates.

Workers' compensation claim resolutions by type

Workers' compensation claim resolutions, average days of paid temporary disability

A claim may be closed multiple times if it is reopened because of a new or omitted condition, an aggravation, or if the injured worker gets vocational training. The preceding tables provided information for individual claim resolutions. The following table provides information on the average temporary paid per claim.

Workers' compensation resolved claims, average paid days and dollars

The following table shows that insurers deny the majority of the aggravation claims.

Aggravation claims