Your employer is responsible for your medical bills and wage loss if you are hurt while working. Some employers pay for these losses out of their bank accounts, however, the majority of employers purchase workers’ compensation insurance to protect them in the event an employee is injured. If your employer does not provide this benefit or have insurance to provide this benefit, you may be eligible for benefits from the Uninsured Employer Guaranty Fund.
Let’s pretend for a minute that we work for Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, and we have been bitten by a bat like Meredith, or fallen in the warehouse and broken our ankle, like Darryl. We notify our employer of our injury, and begin a workers’ comp claim, only to find out that in spite of the Pennsylvania law that requires employers to have workers’ compensation insurance or be self-insured, the business does not have this workers’ compensation insurance. What are our options?
If an employer does not have workers’ comp insurance and is not self-insured, they may be subject to civil and criminal penalties. But this is not going to solve your immediate problem of needing compensation for being hurt on the job. In this situation, you may be eligible for benefits from the Uninsured Employer Guaranty Fund.
- Uninsured Employer Guaranty Fund (UEGF)
What is it?
In 2006, Pennsylvania established the Uninsured Employers Guaranty Fund (UEGF), to ensure that injured workers whose employers do not have workers’ compensation insurance will be paid the wage loss and medical benefits to which they are entitled.
What is the process?
First, you will file a claim against your uninsured employer. Next, you will give notice of that claim to UEGF by filing Form LIBC-551. A claimant must give notice within 45 days from the date he or she discovered the employer was uninsured. Failure to do so will remove your employer’s obligation to pay any benefits including exorbitant medical fees and any lost wages. Notice must be formally provided to the fund by filing Additionally, Form LIBC-550 must be filed 25 days after filing Form LIBC-551. This form initiates the formal process by which your claim will be decided.
After these forms are filed, a Workers’ Compensation judge will hold a series of hearings, then issue a decision determining whether you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits from the UEGF.
If the judge issues a decision and awards you benefits, your employer will have thirty days to pay you your benefits. If they don’t then the UEGF will pay the benefits that you’re awarded – both your money for lost wages and your medical bills.
When filing a claim with the UEGF, there are specific requirements that must be met, and that is one reason why it’s important to hire an attorney.
If you have suffered a work injury and your employer does not have workers’ comp insurance, contact the experienced workers’ compensation lawyers at Aversa and Linn to assist you with understanding your rights and your options under the law.
