Be Reasonable With Your Rehabilitation
Workers’ compensation may cover a rehabilitation plan that will help you prepare to find a job, when your work injury has prevented you from continuing what you used to do. This vocational rehabilitation can be a great opportunity to help you develop your skills and prepare for your future. But the opportunity can be blown if it is not handled reasonably and diligently.
Vocational rehabilitation can provide you with services, such as job training, education, and job searching support. But if you do not cooperate with the rehabilitation company, then you could lose your benefits, including your maintenance. What can get in your way? If you are not following through with the recommendations, you could be risking your benefits. But also, your follow- through has to be reasonable and realistic.
The rehabilitation program is not necessarily going to completely change your career path altogether. You can learn some new skills, and complete some education, and receive other supports. But a worker recently in a case in Illinois, lost his maintenance benefits partly because his unrealistic job search efforts.
He had been a meat cutter for a grocery chain, and did not have much of an academic record. Yet on his job applications, he specified an unreasonably high salary request, and he was attempting to pursue management positions, for which he was not qualified. On the other hand the rehabilitation company wanted him to pursue a literacy program that they thought would help him, and he did not do that. He also did not make as many job contacts as was expected of him.
In other cases, benefits have been terminated where the vocational rehabilitation program recommended obtaining a GED and to research appropriate job sites, as well as for not handling interviews properly.
What is generally expected to not run into a problem is to put out reasonable efforts at cooperating with the program. But also, it should be done in a meaningful way to help the plan succeed. Otherwise, your efforts at rehabilitation might not seem sincere, and you could risk losing your right to your benefits for the vocational rehabilitation and maintenance. Even if your job search is not a success, your part in the retraining and applying should be genuine and reasonable. If it’s not, it could literally cost you tens of thousands of dollars if the Arbitrator doesn’t like your approach to looking for work.
We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.
