How To Get Money When The Insurance Company Is Not Paying You?

If your claim is denied or the insurance company refuses to pay benefits when the employer is not offering modified work, if you have paid into state disability, you should be able to get money from the Employment Development Department (EDD). EDD pays state disability benefits (SDI) to people who can’t perform their regular job for up to one year. EDD requires that a doctor sign a form saying you are disabled. EDD may require you to attend an examination to continue benefits (IME examination). You must attend the IME exam if you want to continue to receive SDI.

If you are employed by state, county, or city government, you should apply for non-industrial disability leave benefits.

Do not apply for unemployment benefits. By applying for unemployment, you are saying that you are not disabled and can work at any job.

If you are receiving workers compensation benefits at a rate higher than your SDI weekly rate, you cannot receive both SDI and workers compensation payments. This is considered workers’ compensation fraud.

If your SDI weekly rate is higher than your weekly workers’ compensation rate, you can receive a difference payment from EDD. EDD will pay you the difference between your weekly SDI rate and your weekly workers’ compensation rate. If you feel your weekly workers compensation rate is too low, please call our office. Please also call EDD to see if you can receive a difference payment.

This office does not handle EDD appeals. You will have to do this yourself. The telephone number for EDD is (800) 480-3287, Espanol (866) 658-8846.

If you can’t get any benefits, you will have to find a job. You need to be careful about finding a job that does not exceed your physical ability. If the physical requirements of the new job greatly exceed the level of activity that the evaluating doctors say you can perform, this can be harmful to your claim.