A disability can have a tremendous impact on a person’s life both physically and financially. When a person becomes disabled, it is important to pursue as many forms of compensation as possible.

Social Security Disability vs Workers Comp

For people that were injured on the job, it is possible to receive both workers’ compensation and Social Security at the same time.  However, there are some limits to how much you can get.  The government does not want the combined workers’ compensation and Social Security a person receive’s to be more than they earned while working.  I call this the 80% rule.  Basically, the combined amount of social security and workers’ compensation benefits cannot be more than 80% of the person’s average monthly earnings before they became disabled.

How The Government Evaluates What You Are Owed

The good news is that the government takes a generous approach when coming up with a person’s “average earnings”.  The government will first look at the person’s best ten years of employment.  Then they will take the best five years out of that ten year period and come up with an average monthly amount.  In other words, the government takes a person’s monthly average income of the best of the best and compares it to the combined amount of benefits that person receives through workers’ comp and social security.  Any amount over this threshold is deducted from the person’s Social Security disability benefits.