Understanding Insurance Policies

Posted on: 24 June 2020

After you are injured in an accident, such as a car accident or an accident at home, you generally have to work with an insurance company in order not just to cover your medical costs, but also to compensate you for lost income as a result of your injury.

An injury can have really serious consequences on your finances, which is why you want to work to make sure you are fairly compensated from your lost wages so you can recover not just medically, but financially from the accident.

Tip #1: Understand What Counts as Lost Income

First, you need to make sure you understand what counts as lost income so you can fully claim your lost income.

To start with, there is your base pay, which is the regular salary you would have been paid if you were able to work. Next, is your overtime hours. If you typically log overtime hours each week, or if you have seasonal overtime hours you missed out on, those can also be recovered through a lost income portion of your claim.

Next, if you had to use your sick days or your vacation days in order to bring in some income as you recovered from your injuries, in most states, those days can count as lost wages. Most states see the use of sick days or vacation days used in your injury recovery as an unfair burden on you, thus allowing them to be claimed.

You can also recover bonus days, which include things such as holidays that you would have been paid for if you were working.

Your wage claim, depending on how long you are out of work, can even include things such as compensation for missing contributions to your retirement fund, missing bonuses or commission due to time off work, and even missed perks or pay raises.

Tip #2: Proof You Couldn't Work

Second, you need to show that you couldn't work as you recovered from your injury. Generally, the easiest way to prove that you couldn't work is with a doctor's narrative. A doctor's narrative is more than just a note.

It is a story that explains your injuries, diagnosis, and recovery process. A narrative will explain how long you have to miss work and the treatments you need to undergo to recover.

Tip #3: Proof from Your Employer

Third, you are going to need to get proof from your employer to support your lost income claim. There is lots of evidence your employer can provide that will help your claim.

Your employer can provide evidence of the days you were out of work, as well as your salary at the start of your injury. Your employer can provide evidence of how many regular and overtime hours you normally work, as well as evidence that your lost work may hurt your ability to get a bonus or commission. They can also detail any other perks you lost as a result of your injury.

In order to get fair compensation for lost income due to injury, you will need to understand what counts as lost income, and then get proof from your doctor that you couldn't work, and proof from your employer to back up your claim. You may also need to work with a loss of income claims adjustor to determine the total value of lost income you will be compensated for.