California State Disability Insurance (SDI)

Frequently Asked Questions

SDI is an insurance program run by the California Employment Development Section that pays weekly benefits of 55% of your boilerplate wages for up to a year if you are unable to work because you:

  • Accept a non-work-related illness or injury
  • Are pregnant, or
  • Need to take Paid Family Leave (PFL) to treat a sick relative or to bond with a new child.
    • Note: PFL merely provides benefits for up to 8 weeks.

The program is paid for by SDI taxes that are taken out of virtually employees' paychecks. If you lot are self-employed or a business owner, you can pay to get Elective Coverage, which only provides benefits for 39 weeks instead of a year.

COVID-19 and SDI/PFL

If you are ill due to COVID-19, yous may qualify for SDI benefits. If you are caring for somebody who is sick due to COVID-19, yous may qualify for PFL. Meet EDD's questions and answers virtually COVID-xix and the state of California's chart of all the different benefits that may help families impacted by COVID-19.

To go help with questions about the State Disability Insurance (SDI) plan, including Paid Family Leave (PFL), you need to contact the Employment Evolution Department (EDD) of California. EDD provides a listing of ways to contact them nigh SDI or PFL, including online conversation, phone numbers, and role locations.

Tip: If you lot are contacting EDD by telephone, consider calling ane of the non-English language telephone numbers -- it can be quicker to go through on those phones, and the people who answer them know all nearly SDI and PFL, and speak English in improver to the other language.

Note: DB101 cannot answer questions about your SDI merits. If y'all have questions, delight contact EDD.

Employees pay for Country Disability Insurance through a minor SDI taxation (1.1% of earnings) that is automatically taken out of their paychecks. That money is put into a fund, and used to pay for SDI benefits (including Paid Family Get out). People who are cocky-employed or business owners tin can choose to buy elective coverage by paying premiums based on their profits from the previous yr.

Most California employees are covered by SDI.

Some groups of employees are not covered, including:

  • Interstate Railroad workers
  • Some domestic workers
  • Most government employees
  • Some employees of non-profit organizations
  • Cocky-employed workers or business organization owners who practise not pay for elective coverage

Paid Family unit Leave (PFL) is role of the Country Inability Insurance (SDI) program. PFL replaces some of the income yous lose when you lot miss work to care for a sick relative or bail with a new child, for up to eight weeks in a twelvemonth. Your benefit amount is calculated the aforementioned manner as SDI, but there'south a different form to apply for PFL.

Note: Earlier July 1, 2020, you could only accept half dozen weeks of PFL per year.

The SDI program more often than not pays 55% of the average wages y'all earned before the outset of your inability. To calculate your average income, SDI looks at a yearlong catamenia that starts around 17 months earlier your disability, and ends around 5 months earlier your inability. Those 12 months are called your base period. SDI divides your base menstruum into iv quarters and uses the quarter when you had the highest wages to figure your average income, and your benefit amount.

Acquire more about Computing SDI Benefits, and check the chart of Weekly Do good Amounts.

For SDI or PFL benefits, your base period is the 12 months from roughly 17 months to roughly 5 months earlier the start of your disability.

In 2022, the base periods are:

Claims showtime in the months of January, Feb, or March of 2022:
The base period is the 12 months from October ane, 2020 to September 30, 2021.

Claims beginning in the months of April, May, or June of 2022:
The base period is the 12 months from January 1, 2021 to Dec 31, 2021.

Claims beginning in the months of July, August, or September of 2022:
The base of operations period is the 12 months from Apr one, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

Claims beginning in the months of October, Nov, or December of 2022:
The base flow is the 12 months from July ane, 2021 to June 30, 2022.

It's a little complicated. The simple answer is that your benefit period normally ends on the engagement your medical provider lists on your claim grade, saying you should be able to work by that appointment. After that date, if you still tin't work considering of your inability, you and your medical provider tin ask for a longer benefit menstruum.

However, SDI is designed to replace your income for up to 52 weeks of missing piece of work considering of your disability (39 weeks for constituent coverage and eight weeks for Paid Family Leave). You lot can get SDI benefits of up to 52 times your weekly benefit amount, if your medical provider certifies that you still can't piece of work because of your disability.

If you can go back to work part-time or get other income before your benefit catamenia ends, your weekly payment might get down, and you can go benefits for longer than 52 weeks, until you go the total amount you qualify for.

For example, Sam gets an SDI do good of $200 a calendar week, and qualifies for up to $ten,400 in total SDI payments ($200 10 52 = $10,400). After 6 months, Sam has gotten $v,200 in benefits, or half his total. Sam goes back to work part-time, and his weekly do good drops to $200 a week. His medical provider says Sam continues to be unable to work full time because of his disability, so Sam keeps getting his $200 weekly SDI payment for another 12 months, until he reaches his $ten,400 limit.

SDI gives greenbacks payments to employees who are unable to work because of a non-work-related disability, and SDI defines a disability every bit "... an illness or injury, either physical or mental, which prevents yous from performing your regular and customary work." The definition also includes elective surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, or other related medical atmospheric condition. Your medical provider has to certify that your condition meets this definition.

To get Paid Family Leave because y'all are caring for a ill relative, the relative has to have a mental or physical condition that requires at-habitation intendance or in-patient care in a hosptial, hospice, or residential medical facility, with continuing handling by a doctor or other health care provider.

No. SDI has no limits on what you lot can ain or accept in the depository financial institution.

There is a vii-day waiting menstruum, which means you won't get any SDI benefits for the first calendar week y'all're off work because of a not-piece of work-related injury or illness. Benefits start on the 8th 24-hour interval. Information technology typically takes SDI xiv days to process an application, so you lot ordinarily start getting your benefit payments 2 weeks afterward you file your claim.

Note: There is no waiting period for Paid Family Leave (PFL).

California State Disability Insurance (SDI) is a state program that provides short-term benefits (up to a year) if you can't work because of a non-job-related injury or disease. Employees pay into the system through SDI taxes that are taken out of their paychecks. People who are self-employed or business owners can choose to pay for constituent coverage. SDI covers a wide range of disabilities lasting more than seven days. It also offers Paid Family Exit (up to eight weeks) for those who are caring for a ill relative or bonding with a new kid.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal program giving long-term cash benefits to people who accept paid into the system (through income taxes while working for at least a minimum amount of time) and can't piece of work because of a disability.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program providing long-term greenbacks benefits to depression-income people who have a disability, are blind, or are 65 or older.

To qualify for SSDI or SSI, the disability be a total disability lasting for at least 12 months (in a row) or that can be expected to event in death. The person must not merely exist unable to do his or her previous work, but also that he or she cannot -- because age, education, and piece of work experience -- do whatever other kind of work that exists in the national economy.

Yes. It's possible to qualify for California's State Disability Insurance (SDI) while you are on one or both of the federal programs, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Inability Insurance (SSDI). Still, getting SDI benefits might make your SSI or SSDI benefits either go down or stop birthday.

Yous do not have to reapply. However, y'all must tell SDI immediately if yous:

  • Become back to work part time or total time
  • Recover from your disability, or
  • Get any other type of income.

You must too imemdiately report the expiry of a person getting SDI payments.

At sure times SDI asks you lot to "certify" (fill out a course online or past mail) that you lot withal qualify for benefits, and if you lot do non do this your benefits stop. If you lot are getting automated payments, you are asked to certify later 10 weeks of getting benefits. If y'all are non getting automatic payments, you accept to fill out a certification form every two weeks.

Once you are on SDI, as long every bit you are notwithstanding unable to work because of your disability your benefit payments will continue up until the "return to work" appointment your medical provider listed on your application. If your inability lasts past that date, y'all and your medical provider must enquire to extend your benefit period. SDI benefits supercede up to 52 weeks of lost income, but if you get a partial benefit you might get payments for longer.

For details, see How long does the SDI benefit concluding?

The SDI application does not require any sort of proof of citizenship or clearing status.

Yep. You can get a partial or full benefit if yous are working less than your regular hours.

No. Y'all cannot go Unemployment Insurance and SDI benefits at the same fourth dimension. Y'all should consider applying for Unemployment Insurance if you are at present able to work and looking for piece of work. Yous should utilize for SDI if y'all are unable to work because of a non-work-related disability.

If you can go back to work full time, you no longer become SDI benefits. If yous render to piece of work office-fourth dimension, SDI looks at how much your SDI payments and your part-time wages are when added together. If that is less than what y'all earned before the first of your disability, y'all continue to get your full SDI benefit. However, if your SDI benefit added to your part-time wages is more than what y'all earned before your inability began, your SDI payment may get downward.

For example, Sam earned $ane,000 a calendar week earlier his illness, and now gets $600 a week from SDI. After several months he's able to go back to piece of work office-time, and earns $500 a calendar week. His $600 SDI payment plus his $500 in wages is $1,100, which is more the $i,000 Sam earned before he got ill. So his SDI payment drops to $500, but he continues to get this partial SDI payment.

If you get a partial SDI benefit, you might get SDI payments for more than the 52 week maximum (39 weeks for elective coverage). For details, see How long does the SDI do good last?

You lot must file your claim between 9 and 49 days after the start of your disability. You cannot submit your application until the 9th 24-hour interval, and if you expect too long y'all may lose your benefits. If you file your merits afterwards the 49th day, include a letter explaining why y'all couldn't submit your claim on time.

Yeah. For a pregnancy without complications, the benefit menstruation is generally from 4 weeks before your due date to 6 weeks after your delivery. If your pregnancy prevents you from working earlier or afterward that menstruum, your doctor has to explain why on the claim form.

Note: This commodity focuses on SDI for people with disabilities and Paid Family Get out (PFL) for people taking intendance of a person with a inability. If you accept questions about Pregnancy Disability Leave, contact the EDD.

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