A recent post on this blog talked about temporary total disability benefits, or TTD, which are the type of benefits an injured Minnesota worker gets when he or she is hurt on the job and needs to take a few weeks or months off to recover. While arguable, TTD is perhaps the easiest benefit to understand.
Another benefit workers commonly get awarded during the workers’ compensation process is permanent partial disability, or PPD. Unlike TTD, workers do not get this benefit at the time of their injury.
Instead, as the name implies, they are only awarded when it appears that the worker will to some extent not recover from his or her injury completely. Medically, this means a doctor must give an opinion that the patient’s condition has improved to the fullest extent possible.
Relatively few workers are injured so severely that they cannot return to work at all, and PPD is designed to compensate workers for their partial loss of their physical capabilities. After all, even if a person can return to work, a permanent injury could make the job harder to perform, which in turn makes it harder for the injured person to earn a living.
PPD benefits are paid according to the type of injury the worker suffers. Based on a set schedule, the worker’s injury is assigned a rating. This number, which will always be less than or equal to 1.0, will be multiplied by a weekly benefit amount established under Minnesota law. The result is the amount of regular compensation the injured worker will receive.
Strictly by way of example, if the weekly benefit is $1,000, and the worker has a type of leg injury rated at .20, or 20 percent, then the worker will receive $200.
Like other types of workers’ compensation, PPD can at times be difficult for a Twin Cities worker not familiar with the system to understand. A skilled workers’ compensation attorney can be of assistance in this respect.