If you are injured at your job, you may have some hesitancy about returning once enough healing has occurred. For others, the injury may be so severe that they know they will not be able to return to their job in the same capacity following their injury. In these instances, can an employee opt to quit their job and continue collecting workers’ compensation while they recover or look for a new job? We explore how quitting your job could impact your workers’ compensation benefits in today’s blog.
Quitting Your Job While Collecting Workers’ Compensation
Because workers’ compensation is complex and laws are always changing, we can’t sit here with certainty and tell you that quitting your job will absolutely impact you in a specific manner. There are a number of details that need to be examined and understood before we can truly come to grips with how quitting your job may impact your benefits going forward. With that said, our single biggest piece of advice is to never quit your job if you are collecting workers’ compensation without first consulting with an attorney.
Simply put, there’s nothing good that can come out of quitting your job while you’re collecting workers’ compensation, but there are plenty of problems that can develop as a result of your decision to leave your job. That’s not to say that quitting may not be the right decision for you, but you need to run it by a professional who understands the possible ways that it could impact your financial situation.
For example, quitting your job in the midst of a workers’ compensation claim could put an end to your wage replacement benefits. Odds are you are collecting wage loss benefits if you are injured and missing time away from work, but these benefits are directly tied to your employment. In other words, if you quit your job, you may no longer be able to collect wage replacement benefits since there no longer exists a wage to be replaced.
Additionally, quitting your job mid-claim can also impact your health insurance, your 401k or your Paid Time Off accruement. You may need those benefits as you work to recover from your injuries and quitting your job abruptly can lead to a forfeiture of these benefits. Again, run the idea by your injury lawyer before you make any rash decisions about leaving the company.
Depending on the nature of your injuries, it’s certainly possible that it’s clear that you will not be able to return to the same position in your old capacity. Switching positions or leaving the company for another job may be in your future, but don’t just try to do this process on your own. You have access to a number of different services through your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance that can help with this process.
For example, you may be able to seek retraining benefits to acquire the skills to work another job within the same company, you may be able to have education expenses covered in order to seek a new career that requires a different education background, or you may be able to get assistance finding and applying for new jobs that account for your injury restrictions. All of these options are free for you as a result of your injury claim, because workers’ compensation insurance is designed to help get the injured employee back into gainful employment.
Whatever you do, don’t act rashly as a result of your injuries. You may be frustrated with the company or the extent of your injuries, but quitting your job can cause major problems for your injury benefits and employee benefits, so talk the decision over with your family and a lawyer before moving forward with any major life decisions. And if you need help filing a claim or accessing some of these benefits available to you through an injury claim, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
