Ohio: Abandonment of Workforce Results in Disqualification from Benefits

The Supreme Court of Ohio held that evidence supported a state commission's determination that a worker had abandoned the workforce and, therefore, was not entitled to permanent total disability benefits where the worker testified that he had been receiving federal disability benefits that arose from his former employment with the USPS and he believed that he would lose those benefits if he accepted employment. The Supreme Court noted that the worker had not worked since 2009 and had not sought work since at least September 11, 2014. The commission was within its discretion to consider the worker's inaction as evidence that he no longer desired to be actively employed.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

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See State ex rel. Bonnlander v. Hamon, 2020-Ohio-4269, 2020 Ohio LEXIS 1989 (Sept. 2, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 84.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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