Different Types of Disability Benefits under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act

There are three types of disability benefits under the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act.

1) Temporary Total Disability Benefits: Where the disability to work resulting from the injury is temporary total, the employer shall pay a weekly benefit equal to 2/3 of the employee’s average weekly wage up to a maximum of $500.00 per week. An employee does not have to 100% physically incapable of working to be eligible for temporary total disability benefits. Rather, he needs to suffer a total impairment of his earning capacity. Temporary total disability benefits are payable when the employee is economically totally disabled from work.

2) Temporary Partial Disability Benefits: Where the disability to work is partial in character but temporary in quality, the employer shall pay the employee a weekly benefit equal to 2/3 the difference between the average weekly wage before the injury and the average weekly wage the employee is able to earn after the injury – up to a maximum of $334.00 per week. For an employee/claimant to be entitled to temporary partial disability benefits, his disability must not only be temporary rather than permanent, but his disability must also be partial rather than total.

3) Permanent Partial Disability Benefits: Permanent Partial means disability partial in character but permanent in quality resulting from loss or loss of use of body members or from partial loss of use of the employee’s body. In cases of permanent partial disability, benefits are payable according the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Code system. Unlike temporary total and temporary partial disability benefits, permanent partial disability benefits are payable without regard to economic loss; they are paid according to physical disability. These benefits, however, are not payable so long as employee is receiving temporary total or temporary partial disability benefits.