Temporary Partial Disability (TPD)

When TPD applies

Two conditions have to be true at the same time. You have not reached overall maximum medical improvement, and the medical conditions from your accident create restrictions on your ability to return to work.

That is the whole test. TPD isn’t limited to workers who went back to a light duty job—it also covers workers with restrictions who can’t find work within them. If you are released to restricted duty and earning nothing, TPD is still the applicable benefit.

If your doctor takes you out of work entirely, you are on temporary total disability instead. If you reach MMI, temporary benefits end and impairment income benefits take over.

How TPD is calculated

The formula is awkward on first reading, so work it in steps:

1. Take 80% of your average weekly wage.
2. Subtract what you actually earn in that week.
3. Pay 80% of what is left.

Worked example. Your AWW is $1,000. Eighty percent of that is $800. You return to light duty earning $500 a week. The gap is $300. TPD pays 80% of $300, which is $240. Your total for the week is $740.

Weekly TPD cannot exceed 66⅔% of your AWW — the same rate you would receive on TTD. So partial duty benefits can never be worth more than total disability benefits, no matter how the arithmetic falls.

Earnings are compared week by week, not averaged across the claim. A week of more hours reduces that week’s check; a week of fewer hours increases it.

Deadlines both sides have to meet.

The carrier has 5 business days. Once it knows you were released to restricted work, the carrier must mail you and your employer an informational letter explaining your possible eligibility for TPD and your responsibilities. Many workers never receive it, and many never learn TPD exists.

You have 5 business days. You must notify the carrier within five business days after returning to work. Failing to report an earning capacity in time results in suspension or nonpayment of TPD until you provide proper notification.

The first TPD installment is due 7 days after the last day of the employer’s first biweekly work week, and biweekly thereafter.

Where TPD goes wrong

• Deemed earnings. If you leave the employment where you were hurt while receiving TPD without just cause, the statute allows benefits to be calculated on “deemed earnings” — as though you had stayed. Quitting a light-duty job, however unpleasant, has direct financial consequences.
• Termination for misconduct. If you are terminated from post injury employment based on misconduct, TPD is not payable. Carriers sometimes characterize ordinary disputes as misconduct.
• The affidavit requirement. If you leave that employer and find work elsewhere, you must provide a written affidavit naming the new employer, the workplace, and your wages. Until you do, TPD stops. The former employer can also demand an updated affidavit at any time.
• Unemployment offset. If you are receiving reemployment assistance, those benefits are primary, and TPD is supplemental only — the two combined cannot exceed what TPD alone would have paid.
• The AWW error compounds. Because both halves of the formula run off your average weekly wage, an understated AWW reduces TPD twice over.

What this means for your claim

TPD is the benefit injured workers most often lose without ever knowing it existed. It requires you to report earnings on time, can be suspended for paperwork, and uses a formula almost nobody can reproduce from memory.

Keep a weekly record of hours and gross pay from the date you return to restricted work. Compare each TPD check against the three step calculation above using your correct AWW. And treat the five-business-day reporting rule as a hard deadline — a suspension for late notice is entirely avoidable and entirely common.