If you’re recovering from a job-related injury, one of the first questions you might ask is:
“How long can I keep receiving workers’ compensation benefits?”
The answer depends on several factors — including the type of benefit, the severity of your injury, and whether you’ve reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI).
At Employees First Labor Law, we help California workers get every dollar they’re entitled to — and we make sure insurance companies don’t cut off benefits prematurely.
🔹 Types of Workers’ Comp Benefits — and How Long They Last
In California, there are several categories of benefits, each with its own timeline:
✅ Temporary Disability Benefits (TD)
- Covers lost wages while you’re unable to work due to your injury
- Paid at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to a weekly max
- Maximum duration: 104 weeks (2 years) within a 5-year period
- May be extended to 240 weeks for certain serious conditions (e.g., amputations, severe burns)
✅ Permanent Disability Benefits (PD)
- Kicks in once you’ve reached MMI and still have lasting limitations
- Paid out in weekly payments, based on your disability rating
- The higher the rating, the longer you receive payments (can last months to years)
- Serious cases may result in Permanent Total Disability (PTD) with lifetime payments
✅ Medical Treatment
- No strict time limit
- Lifelong medical care is available for accepted injuries if deemed reasonable and necessary
- Insurance carriers may still try to deny treatment later — but we can fight those denials
✅ Supplemental Job Displacement Voucher (SJDB)
- One-time benefit for workers who can’t return to their job and don’t receive a full return offer
- Provides $6,000 for education or retraining
- Must be used within 2 years of receiving the voucher
🔹 What Can Cut Off Your Benefits Early?
Insurance companies often try to reduce or terminate benefits before they should. Common tactics include:
- Declaring you reached MMI too soon
- Downplaying your disability rating
- Using surveillance to claim you’re not as injured
- Refusing to authorize necessary medical treatment
If any of this happens, it’s time to get legal help. At EFLL, we challenge improper cutoffs, get you second medical opinions, and protect your benefits through aggressive advocacy.
🔹 What If I Can Never Work Again?
If your injury is so severe that you can’t return to work in any capacity, you may qualify for:
- Permanent Total Disability (PTD) benefits, paid for life
- Lifetime medical care
- A compromise and release settlement that compensates you for lost earning capacity
We work with vocational experts and medical specialists to prove total disability when needed — and we maximize the value of lifetime awards.
🔹 Why Choose Employees First Labor Law?
We’re not just any workers’ comp firm. At Employees First Labor Law, we:
- Track benefit timelines to ensure full payment
- Dispute early MMI findings and low disability ratings
- Coordinate QME/AME exams to support extended benefits
- Fight for lifetime medical care and permanent disability payouts
- Handle both workers’ comp and related employment law claims, like retaliation or wrongful termination
You focus on healing — we make sure the benefits don’t stop before they should.
✅ Get a Free Case Review
If your benefits have been cut off, delayed, or denied, or you just want to make sure you’re getting the maximum you deserve, reach out to EFLL today.
