No one expects to suffer a serious injury, but the reality is that accidents can happen at any time and any place. One of those places is the workplace. When a worker suffers a disabling injury in the workplace, he or she will likely seek workers’ compensation benefits. While these are very helpful benefits to collect, injured workers could seek other disability benefits. This is especially true if they have suffered a long-term disability. In these cases, Social Security Disability can be extremely helpful.
What are the most common disabling injuries in the workplace? Based on recent statistics, overexertion involving outside sources topped the list for the last three years. This has been the leading cause of serious, nonfatal disabling workplace injury since 2014. This type of injury accounts for roughly 23 percent of disabling workplace injuries and is caused by activities such as lifting, pushing, pulling and other actions involving objects.
Other injuries included in the top ten list include falls occurring on the same level, falls to a lower level, being struck by an object or equipment, other exertions or bodily reactions, motor vehicle accidents, a slip or trip without actually falling, being caught in or compressed by equipment or objects, stuck against equipment or object, and repetitive motions that involve micro-tasks. Disabling work injuries as a whole account for $59.87 billion in workers’ compensation costs, with these top ten accounting for $49.92 billion.
Workers’ compensation benefits can address the losses and damages arising from a work-related injury. However, injured Florida workers are still afforded the opportunity to seek other benefits from available government programs. A disabled individual could seek SSD benefits to help them meet their basic needs and obtain necessary financial resources.
Source: Safetyandhealthmagazine.com, “Overexertion tops list of disabling work injuries for third straight year,” Jan. 17, 2017
