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Chances are if you live in California, your employer is taking out part of your weekly paycheck for payment into the State Disability Insurance (SDI) fund. California disability insurance helps people who become disabled for reasons outside of their job by providing benefits during the time the individual is disabled. The benefits received replace income that is lost when an individual cannot work due to a disabling illness, a pregnancy or taking time off to care for a sick family member.
California disability insurance gives a much broader definition to disability than the Social Security Administration does. This includes allowing people to collect benefits when they are pregnant and can no longer work or having to take leave to care for a sick family member. Most California employees pay into the state disability insurance fund. It is an automatic payroll deduction similar to taxes and SSI. If you pay into California disability insurance, you are automatically covered by the plan in the event that you require use of the funds.
In addition to being disabled, being pregnant or caring for a sick family member, there are other requirements in order to receive California disability insurance. You have had to have been absent from work for more than seven days because of the situation. If you are unemployed, you have to be able to prove that you are actively seeking employment. California disability insurance also requires that you have to be under medically supervised treatment during the first 8 days of your disability and will continue to be under medical supervision while you are collecting benefits. Finally, in order to qualify, you have to have income of $300 in your base period.
California disability insurance usually pays 55% of your wages for up to 52 weeks. They look at your average earnings over a 12 month period that starts roughly 17 months before you become disabled and ends 5 months before your disability. This period is referred to as your base period and it is used to determine what the amount of your benefit will be.
In order to collect California disability insurance benefits, you need to fill out a four page claims form. These are available from the Employment Development Department. You have to file this form between 9 and 49 days of becoming disabled in order to receive benefits. Once your California disability insurance claim has been processed, you should start to receive disability payments within two weeks of filing your claim.