Claims Coverage

Who is covered?


  • Employees or recent employees of a “covered” employer who have worked at least four consecutive weeks;

  • An employer of one or more persons on each of 30 days in any calendar year becomes a “covered” employer four weeks after the 30th day of such employment;

  • Employees of an employer who elects to provide benefits by filing an Application for Voluntary Coverage (DB-135) with the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board;

  • Employees who change jobs from one “covered” employer to another “covered” employer are protected from the first day on the new job

  • Domestic or personal employees who work 40 or more hours per week for one employer.


Who is not covered?


  • Sole proprietors, partners, and members of limited liability companies (however, their employees must be covered);

  • A minor child of an employer;

  • Government, railroad, maritime or farm workers;

  • Ministers, priests, rabbis, members of religious orders, sextons, Christian Science readers;

  • Corporate officers and persons engaged in a professional or teaching capacity in or for a religious, charitable or educational institution of a “non-profit” character, and persons receiving rehabilitation services in a sheltered workshop operated by such institutions under a certificate issued by the U.S. Department of Labor;

  • Persons receiving aid from a religious or charitable institution, who perform work in return for such aid;

  • One or two corporate officers who either singly or jointly own all the stock and hold all of the offices of a corporation that employs no other employees;

  • Golf caddies;

  • Daytime students in elementary or secondary school who work part-time during the school year or their regular vacation period;

  • Employees who change jobs in an exempt employment or with a “non-covered” employer, and work in such employment for more than four weeks lose protection until they work four consecutive weeks for a “covered” employer.


When should a claim be filed?


A claim must be filed within 30 days of your disability.


If I become disabled while collecting unemployment, can I collect disability benefits?


If you have been unemployed for less than four weeks and become disabled, you should file a DB-450. If you have been off work more than four weeks and become disabled while collecting unemployment benefits, you should file a DB-300 with:

NYS Workers’ Compensation Board – Disability Benefits
100 Broadway – Menands
Albany, NY 12241

You may obtain a DB-300 from your local Workers’ Compensation Board or call 1-800-353-3092.

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