0

Background:
1 Full time in office job
1 Part time job, working remote from home

Situation:
Surgery with 4 week recovery time. Will not be able to work full time job because it is a physical job. They are able to keep working the remote computer based job.

Question: Does California Short Term Disability Insurance allow for one to collect for just the full time job while they are still working a part time 2nd job?

| improve this question | |
  • 2
    Might want to ask this in the Law StackExchange. – nick012000 Dec 27 '19 at 22:57
  • If you can work, do you deserve a disability payment or should you let someone more deserving have it? – Solar Mike Dec 27 '19 at 23:08
  • 5
    @SolarMike 1) Well, the said person can work remotely for a computer based job and its only part time. The full time job is physical work and can not be done after surgery. 2) Presumably they've been paying into the disability system, so not sure why they wouldn't be entitled to it when they're recovering from surgery. Would you only use your home insurance if you couldn't afford it? or if you had the money would you pay for your burnt up house so someone else more deserving can use the insurance money? despite the fact you've been paying for your home insurance for years? – Kyle Dec 27 '19 at 23:41
  • 1
    The person will need to report both jobs and the wages from both when they file and keep reporting the wages from the part-time job. How that will affect the benefit amount I don't know. – mkennedy Dec 27 '19 at 23:56
  • For clarity, this is for short term disability and not unemployment(the link is for unemployment insurance it looks like). They have no problem reporting both jobs, I'm just having trouble figuring out the rules and if there's a point to file for it at all, or if they'll be rejected since they still have income or not, and trying to figure our what kind of income they need to plan for. – Kyle Dec 27 '19 at 23:58
5

As per EDD for california:

In order to be eligible for DI benefits, you must:

Be unable to do your regular or customary work for at least eight days.

Be employed or actively looking for work at the time your disability begins.

Have lost wages because of your disability.

[..]

As you are unable to do your regular hours and are actually wages, it seems that under those circumstances, you may be eligible for something, maybe even the ordinary amount, if otherwise, you would keep both jobs and not use the part-time as a replacement.

| improve this answer | |
  • 1
    Could you add a link for this information? – Upper_Case Dec 31 '19 at 17:29
  • 2
    @Upper_Case done. – Tymoteusz Paul Dec 31 '19 at 18:18
2

For all part-time, intermittent, reduced hours, and reduced wage situations, the Employment Development Department (EDD) suggests that you file a claim, and after we receive your properly completed claim, we will determine if you are eligible for Disability Insurance (DI) or Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits.
...
If you return to work on a part-time basis because you are unable to perform your regular or customary work, and have a continued wage loss due to your disability or family care, you may be eligible to receive continued DI or PFL benefits.

https://www.edd.ca.gov/disability/Part-time_Intermittent_Reduced_Work_Schedule.htmThis is arguably not the exact situation you describe, but the general principle seems to be that you can collect benefits even if you're still working, if you're getting less money.

In a comment, you say:

I'm just having trouble figuring out the rules and if there's a point to file for it at all, or if they'll be rejected since they still have income or not, and trying to figure our what kind of income they need to plan for.

For the question "Will the application be accepted", I would say "Probably", but for "Should I submit an application and see what happens", I'd say "Sure".

| improve this answer | |
1

It depends. To be eligible for disability you have to meet certain conditions including being unable to perform your job duties. Depending on what type of job duties you have, it could be a situation where due to the surgery, you might be able to perform one job and not the other, but I would expect that such a case would need to be readily apparent or easy for them to verify.

| improve this answer | |
  • So as long as they are not able to work the full time, and able to work the part time, they should be able to collect? The part time is remote, in home, computer work. The full time is a physical job. I assume it would be easy to have a doctor write up a letter for it. – Kyle Dec 27 '19 at 23:42
  • Would that require being honest about all one’s job duties? – Solar Mike Dec 27 '19 at 23:42
  • 2
    @SolarMike Are you for some reason suggesting someone is not being honest here, Mike? – Kyle Dec 27 '19 at 23:47
  • @Kyle will you declare both jobs? Will you declare all the duties? Given your question... let me guess... – Solar Mike Dec 27 '19 at 23:49
  • 3
    This isn't even about me personally, but if this person just wanted to work the system they wouldn't work either job and collect disability, easy peasy. But, they want to keep working what they can. One can be done from a tablet at home, the other one requires heavy lifting all day and they are getting major back surgery. Are you just on SO to be hostile to people? – Kyle Dec 27 '19 at 23:51

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .