Tennessee residents spend a great deal of time at work. Every week day, many people head to work in order to provide for themselves and for their families. While many people will return safely to their homes each evening, workplace accidents do occur. In these accidents, workers can suffer a wide array of injuries. Some of these injuries may be very minor and require little or no medical treatment. However, other injuries can change the course of a worker’s life.
When a person suffers serious injuries while at work, the person may not be able to return to the individual’s job. In these cases, the worker likely needs a source of income to continue paying for the person’s everyday expenses. This income generally comes from one of two places — either workers’ compensation insurance or Social Security Disability insurance.
Workers’ compensation insurance and SSDI have some similarities. Namely, they are both meant to help workers following a work-related injury. However, according to the Social Security Administration, they apply in very different situations. SSDI is not meant for every worker following any injury — that’s workers’ compensation. From the first minute on the job, workers’ compensation helps to protect workers in case of an accident.
SSDI, on the other hand, is available for people with significant work histories. Furthermore, SSDI is only available to people who suffer from a disability that will keep them from working for more than one year or will result in the person’s death. In these cases, people must be unable to perform any gainful work.
Unlike workers’ compensation, SSDI is available even when a person has been disabled away from the person’s job. An attorney can help to explain SSDI’s eligibly requirements to Tennessee residents that have suffered a serious disabling injury.