|Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation| & Disability Lawyer

Many workers are surprised to learn that they can collect unemployment compensation while they are pursuing a workers compensation claim. In fact, a worker can collect both unemployment compensation and workers compensation at the same time. In these troubled economic times, this concept is an important one to understand.

 To collect unemployment compensation, one must be “able and available” to work. So, if the worker is claiming the inability to perform any work, she is not eligible for unemployment compensation. But, if the worker has the slightest ability to work (e.g. performing a sedentary or “sit down” job), she is eligible for unemployment compensation.

The same worker only needs to be disabled from her regular job (due to a work related injury) in order to be eligible for workers’ compensation. So, if the worker’s job required her to lift 50 pounds on a regular basis, and her injury restricts her to lifting under 10 pounds, she is eligible for both unemployment compensation and workers compensation.

If the workers’ compensation claim is uncontested and being paid, the employer or its workers’ compensation carrier will reduce the workers’ compensation benefit by the amount of any unemployment compensation benefit received. In this fashion, the benefits are “coordinated” so that only the highest weekly benefit amount is received. Collecting both benefits like this makes little sense for the worker because unemployment compensation is a limited benefit that can be exhausted.

In good economic times, Unemployment Compensation is paid a maximum of 26 weeks. In troubled economic times, the benefits are extended. Right now a worker can receive as much 59 weeks of regular and extended unemployment compensation benefits.

A little known provision of Act 57 (the last major reform of Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Law) treats workers compensation benefits like wages for the purpose of meeting the financial eligibility requirements for unemployment compensation benefits. Before this provision, being out of work due to a work injury eventually disqualified a worker from making a later unemployment compensation claim because she would reach a point where she did not have enough qualifying earnings.   Because of this change extends an injured worker’s financial eligibility for unemployment compensation while she is out on workers compensation, it makes sense to “save” the unemployment compensation benefits in case the workers’ compensation benefits are terminated or suspended. Otherwise, the worker is “spending” her limited unemployment compensation benefit only to give her employer’s insurer a “gift” of reducing its financial obligation to her.

If the workers’ compensation claim is being contested, however, unemployment compensation benefits should be pursued and collected while the workers’ compensation case is being litigated. In southeastern Pennsylvania, a workers’ compensation claim will ordinarily take between 6 months to 9 months to prosecute to a final decision. Often, claims can take longer to process.

At present, a worker in Pennsylvania can collect at least 39 months of unemployment compensation benefits if they are financially eligible. Applying for unemployment compensation benefits, therefore, will keep the roof overhead and food on the table while the worker is fighting to get her workers compensation benefits.

When a successful workers’ compensation decision is issued, the employer or its workers’ compensation carrier will be entitled to a credit for the net unemployment compensation benefits paid. This credit will result in a reduced payment of back due workers’ compensation benefits. But, a “bird in the hand” is clearly the better option when it takes so long to process a workers’ compensation claim.