An injury that occurs on the job and is serious enough can lead to the injured employee receiving disability benefits. Disability benefits do not necessarily last forever. In fact, employers will often stop your benefits if they find reason to. In fact, employers will sometimes go out of their way to find the reason.
In a recent Pennsylvania court ruling, an employer used surveillance video to show that the employee was able to move around freely and perform certain tasks. As a result, the employer argued that the employee was capable of performing these same tasks at work, and should be forced to return to work instead of receiving disability benefits from the employer. The court permitted the video evidence to be used to prove that the employee’s benefits should be discontinued since the employee’s capabilities were relevant to whether he should be receiving disability benefits.
The decision to allow the video evidence was reportedly a unanimous one. In general, more employers are turning to video evidence to stop employees’ disability insurance.
It is important to note that benefits can be taken away. Even if the court granted you benefits for a certain time, benefits can be taken away before that period if you are found to not have a true continuing disability.
The idea of disability benefits and worker’s compensation is to compensate an injured employee for the work related injury and the money missed while the employee is unable to work. If the employee is able to work, the incentive for providing benefits is lessened.
Social Security Disability Insurance can also be stopped. Individuals with disabilities can receive benefits from the government. A SSDI recipient also risks losing his benefits. If a recipient starts working, and in Philadelphia, starts making $2,000 a month, the SSDI benefits will stop. However, there are other programs that may help aid disabled workers. Unfortunately, there may be a lapse in time from when the SSDI benefits stop and when the worker may qualify for the Pennsylvania state program for disabled workers.
The process of obtaining and maintaining disability benefits can be complex. Seek a qualified attorney to make sure you get the compensation you are owed and that it is not taken away from you unjustifiably.
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