TTD, TPD, PPD, and PTD in Workers Comp

Most state workers comp statutes are organized around four disability categories. Every weekly check, every settlement reserve, every form filed with the commission lives inside one of these four buckets. If you can name the bucket your case is in this week, you can read the statute and predict the next move.

This page covers all four: temporary total disability, temporary partial disability, permanent partial disability, and permanent total disability. Each one has a different formula, a different duration, and a different role at settlement.

Temporary total disability (TTD)

TTD is the weekly check paid while you are completely off work because of a work injury. Most state statutes pay TTD at two-thirds of your average weekly wage (AWW), capped at the state maximum and floored at the state minimum. The check arrives weekly or biweekly, depending on state law and carrier practice.

To qualify for TTD, three boxes have to be checked:

  • A treating doctor has taken you fully off work, or has imposed restrictions the employer cannot accommodate.
  • The disability is a direct result of the work injury (the causation requirement).
  • You are still actively in medical treatment.

TTD is paid until one of three events: you return to work in any capacity, you hit the state’s TTD calendar cap (e.g., 104 weeks in Florida), or your treating doctor declares maximum medical improvement.

TTD is not taxed under federal law (per IRS Publication 525, amounts received as workers compensation for an occupational sickness or injury are exempt from tax). The post-tax gap between your old paycheck and your TTD check is narrower than the headline percentage suggests.

Temporary partial disability (TPD)

TPD is paid when you go back to work in a lighter role at a lower wage. The benefit fills part of the gap between your old AWW and your new earnings. Most states pay TPD at two-thirds of the wage difference, capped at the state maximum.

Worked example. A worker earning $900 a week pre-injury returns to light duty at $600 a week. The wage difference is $300. Two-thirds of $300 is $200. The TPD check is $200 a week, on top of the $600 the worker is now earning, for a total of $800 a week.

TPD has its own duration cap, often longer than the TTD cap. Florida caps combined TTD and TPD at 260 weeks. California TPD also counts against the 104-week temporary disability cap. The TPD check ends if you return to full wages, hit the cap, or reach MMI.

TPD is often missed by injured workers because the carrier does not always volunteer it. If you went back to work in a lower-paid role and your old check was higher, ask the adjuster whether TPD has been calculated. Bring the new pay stubs.

Permanent partial disability (PPD)

PPD is paid after maximum medical improvement, based on the impairment rating assigned by the treating doctor. PPD is not a substitute for TTD. It is a separate award that pays in addition to whatever temporary benefits you already received.

The math has two parts. The state statute publishes a schedule of injuries that assigns a number of weeks to each body part (e.g., 200 weeks for a leg, 300 weeks for a back). The doctor’s impairment percentage is multiplied by the scheduled weeks. The result is the number of weeks of PPD owed, payable at your weekly compensation rate.

Worked example. A 15 percent impairment to an arm in a state that schedules the arm at 250 weeks. PPD weeks: 0.15 times 250 equals 37.5 weeks. At a weekly compensation rate of $720, the PPD award is $27,000. The amount is paid in weekly installments after TTD ends, or as a lump sum if state law allows.

Some states use a “schedule” approach (set weeks per body part, applied to all scheduled body parts) and others use an “unscheduled” or “wage loss” approach for injuries not on the schedule. A few states use a hybrid. PPD is the category with the most state-by-state variation, and the per-state pages on this site cover the specific math for each one.

Permanent total disability (PTD)

PTD is the highest-value benefit and the hardest one to qualify for. It applies when the injury permanently prevents the worker from earning wages in any reasonably available job.

Two paths to PTD:

Statutory presumption. Loss of both hands, both eyes, both feet, or any two of those in combination, typically triggers an automatic PTD finding without further proof of inability to work. Some states add severe burns over a defined percentage of the body or specific catastrophic diagnoses to the presumption list.

Proof of total inability to work. Outside the statutory presumption, a worker proves PTD with a combination of medical opinion (permanent restrictions), vocational evidence (no jobs available within the restrictions in the local labor market), and age/education factors. This is a contested hearing in most states.

PTD duration varies sharply. Many states pay PTD for life. A few states cap PTD at age 65, or coordinate the benefit with Social Security retirement. PTD payment rates are usually the same two-thirds AWW formula as TTD, sometimes adjusted upward for cost-of-living changes.

If a worker on PTD also collects Social Security Disability Insurance, the federal offset rule applies (the combined benefit is capped at 80 percent of pre-injury average current earnings). The offset reduces the SSDI side, not the workers comp side.

How the four categories stack on one claim

A typical non-catastrophic claim moves through the categories in sequence:

  1. Week 0 to MMI. TTD pays while the worker is fully off work. If light duty becomes available before MMI, the file shifts to TPD.
  2. MMI declared. TTD or TPD ends. The doctor writes an impairment rating.
  3. MMI plus PPD weeks. PPD pays for the scheduled number of weeks (e.g., 37.5 weeks for a 15 percent arm rating in a 250-week state).
  4. Settlement or open claim. Either the parties settle, or the claim stays open for ongoing maintenance medical and any future flare-ups.

A catastrophic claim skips the PPD step and lands on PTD. The TTD checks transition to PTD checks once the case is adjudicated, and the duration runs much longer.

Settlement value across the four categories

Each category contributes to the settlement number a different way:

  • TTD contributes the remaining weeks on the cap, times the weekly rate.
  • TPD contributes a similar number if the worker is back in a lower-paid role.
  • PPD contributes the rating times the scheduled weeks, times the rate.
  • PTD contributes a projected lifetime annuity, often discounted to present value.

The carrier writes a reserve for each line on the file. The settlement offer is built from those reserves plus a future medical projection. A worker who understands which categories drive their case understands which numbers are negotiable and which are mechanical.

Sources

Sources cited on this page