Temporary Total Disability (TTD)

When TTD applies

TTD is the benefit for total, temporary incapacity. Two conditions have to hold at once: your authorized treating physician has taken you completely out of work, and you have not yet reached maximum medical improvement.

If your doctor releases you to light duty with restrictions, you move to temporary partial disability instead. If you reach MMI, temporary benefits end and impairment income benefits take over. TTD occupies the window between the accident and one of those two events.

How much TTD pays

The rate is 66⅔% of your average weekly wage, capped at 100% of the statewide average weekly wage for your year of injury. For accidents on or after January 1, 2026, that cap is $1,358 per week.

A worker with an AWW of $1,050 receives $700 per week. TTD is not subject to federal income tax.

Certain catastrophic injuries pay at 80% of your average weekly wage rather than two thirds for the first six months after the accident: loss of an arm, leg, hand, or foot; paraplegia, paraparesis, quadriplegia, or quadriparesis; or loss of sight in both eyes. This enhanced rate is not subject to the statewide maximum so that it can exceed the ordinary weekly cap. It is not payable if you are eligible for or collecting permanent total disability benefits, and the months you receive it count toward — not in addition to — your 104 weeks.

The waiting period

The first seven days of disability are not compensable. If your disability extends beyond 21 days, those first seven days become payable retroactively.

This surprises people. A worker out for two weeks is paid for one. A worker out for four weeks is paid for all four.

The 104-week limit, and the exception

Section 440.15(2)(a) caps temporary disability benefits at 104 weeks — two years — or the date you reach MMI, whichever comes first. TTD and TPD count together against that total.

That cap created a serious problem, and the Florida Supreme Court addressed it. In Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg (Fla. 2016), a firefighter remained totally disabled and unable to work after 104 weeks but had not yet reached MMI, so he could not qualify for permanent total disability either. He fell into a gap with no benefits.

The Court held the 104 week limitation unconstitutional as applied in those circumstances, as a denial of access to courts, and revived the pre-1994 limit of 260 weeks — five years — for workers in that position.

The practical result: if you are still totally disabled when your 104 weeks run out and no doctor has placed you at MMI, your temporary benefits should not simply stop. Carriers do not always apply Westphal on their own.

Where TTD goes wrong

• Benefits stopped at 104 weeks without a Westphal analysis for a worker who is still totally disabled and not at MMI.
• Wrong AWW. Because TTD is a percentage of average weekly wage, an understated AWW understates every check.
• Reclassification to TPD after a light duty release that no employer can actually accommodate — which can reduce the check substantially while no work is available.
• Suspension for a missed appointment. Carriers suspend benefits for missed authorized medical visits. Sometimes the appointment was never properly noticed.
• Late or irregular payment. Florida requires timely payment, and penalties and interest can attach to late benefits.

What this means for your claim

Check two numbers: your weekly TTD rate against two thirds of your correctly calculated AWW, and your cumulative week count against 104.

If you are approaching 104 weeks and still cannot work, you need to address that deadline before it arrives, not after. The transition point between temporary benefits, impairment benefits, and permanent total disability is where claims most often break down—and where the difference between an informed and uninformed worker is measured in years of benefits.