If you are considering retirement while receiving workers’ compensation benefits, you may have questions, including, “Can I retire while on workers’ comp?” and “What happens if I retire while on workers’ comp?” At Younce, Vtipil, Baznik & Banks, P.A., our experienced attorneys can explain how this change in employment status can affect your workers’ compensation benefits under North Carolina law and answer all your questions.
Voluntary vs. Forced Retirement
When considering how retirement will affect your workers’ comp benefits, the first factor is typically whether you voluntarily retired or were forced into retirement due to your workplace injury and resulting disability.
Voluntary Retirement
Voluntary retirement is what is traditionally thought of as “retirement.” In other words, you decide when you leave the workforce. To prove that you voluntarily retired, your employer must show that you chose not to return to the workforce by demonstrating that you could have continued working. Other factors that may be used to show that you voluntarily retired include whether you are looking for other employment or if you accepted a retirement pension.
Forced Retirement
Involuntary retirement, also called forced retirement, occurs if you must leave your job against your will because of a work-related disability. In other words, if your workplace injury results in a permanent disability that prevents you from returning to your previous job or any other work, you may be forced into retirement involuntarily.
What Are the Doctor’s Restrictions on You?
“Disability” is defined in North Carolina workers’ compensation law as “incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury in the same or any other employment.” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(9). That disability may be total or partial. As a general rule, the injured worker must prove that he/she is disabled. The easiest way to prove that you are disabled is for the authorized treating doctor to put it in writing that you are not to work at all in any capacity.
However, often the doctor may write that you can do some work, but with physical restrictions (also called light duty). The more detail the doctor puts in writing the better. If the employer cannot accommodate those restrictions and terminated the employment of the injured worker, the usual way that he/she can prove disability is by documenting a reasonable job search and demonstrating that no employer will hire him/her.
