Ask a Lawyer: How Social Security Benefits Interact With Workers’ Comp

If you were injured in a work accident in North Carolina, you may be wondering if your Social Security benefits will affect your workers’ comp benefits. Unfortunately, filing for workers’ comp in North Carolina is not easy. It’s often confusing and challenging to do without the help of an experienced workers’ comp attorney. That’s why Attorney Shannon Warf Kovach, a Board-Certified Workers’ Comp Specialist in North Carolina, is answering this frequently asked question in this video. Read the following transcript to gain her valuable insight.

Attorney Shannon Warf Kovach:
In a different creature, Social Security disability, we have Social Security disability attorneys here. So sometimes, if you’re disabled and you’re out on workers’ comp, you may also qualify for Social Security disability, and that’s a different type of recovery. We generally like for that to happen after your workers’ comp claim has concluded because there are certain offsets like I was talking about with the unemployment. You can’t double-dip. Same thing with Social Security disability. If you apply for and receive Social Security disability, and you’re also receiving workers’ comp, you’re not going to be maximizing both of those potential benefits.

So, filing a workers’ comp claim doesn’t preclude you from filing a disability claim; those are two different things that you can pursue. Disability takes into consideration more than the workers’ comp injury; it looks at the person as a whole. So, that’s something that we also think about when we have a client, “Is this a person that could benefit or might qualify for Social Security disability?” Again, trying to maximize the recovery.

If you were hurt on the job in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, or anywhere in North Carolina, Attorney Shannon Warf Kovach will be your champion and help you seek the compensation you deserve. Contact us today to get started with your free case review.