Previous posts here have discussed the different types of disability benefits that victims of workplace accidents in Minnesota can receive through the state’s Workers’ Compensation program. To this point, this blog has talked about temporary total disability payments and permanent partial disability payments. The first type of benefit pays a worker who, for a period of time, cannot return to work at all. The second type of benefit pays a worker who may be able to go back to work eventually, but who will have some sort of permanent handicap on account of the injury.
Unfortunately, many residents of the Twin Cities area probably know of at least one person who suffered a workplace injury so extensive that they could not return to work at all. In these sorts of cases, an injured worker can receive permanent total disability, or “PTD,” payments. To qualify for these benefits, a doctor must certify that the worker will remain disabled even after undergoing a course of medical treatment.
PTD benefits can be up to two-thirds of how much a worker was making in gross wages prior to an injury. Generally speaking, these benefits are paid following a severe spinal cord injury or brain injury, blindness or the amputation of either an upper or lower limb.
The specific details of how PTD benefits get paid are governed by the state’s workers’ compensation laws and regulations. While they are designed to get injured workers in Minnesota compensated for their injuries quickly, these laws still can be hard to understand and navigate, particularly when a person is not familiar with the system. Getting more information about the workers’ compensation system can be crucial.