An injured employee who is temporarily disabled is incarcerated for an unrelated crime. You should:

• A. Cut off temporary disability payments
• B. Continue to pay temporary disability at minimum
• C. Continue to pay temporary disability
• D. Cut off temporary disability, but it accrues

Answer: (C)

Temporary disability benefits are tied to the medical condition caused by a work-related injury, not the employee’s criminal status. If the injury leaves the worker temporarily unable to work, those TD payments must continue even if the employee is incarcerated for an unrelated crime, as long as the disability persists and medical certification supports it. The benefits end when the worker is no longer temporarily disabled, reaches maximum medical improvement, or can return to work.

Cutting off benefits because of incarceration would misalign with how TD is determined by medical condition, and reducing to a minimum or creating any accrual mechanism for later payment isn’t how TD is ordinarily handled.