Tips for economic recovery after an accident or injury

 Struggling with finances after suffering an injury? This article explains everything you need to know about how an injury can affect your finances and a few tips on how to manage money struggles. Keep reading below to find out more! 

Medical bills are one of the most common causes of bankruptcy. Statistically, it seems that each of us is only one serious illness away from bankruptcy. This makes total sense. 

Think about it: it’s all about the nature of the expenses an illness or injury involved. You have to pay massive amounts of money out of a sudden. And, if you don’t have an emergency account, it’s going to be really difficult to pay for medical expenses from your monthly budget. What’s more, let’s be honest, medical expenses are huge. From doctor appointments, medications, or medical recovery, it seems like getting healthy after an injury is a really expensive business. 

Besides making you pay some pretty high and unplanned costs, injuries and accidents can also mess with someone’s financial stability in many other ways. Keep reading below to find out the ways injuries can affect your financial health and how you can deal with financial hardship after getting injured! 

Financial problems caused by an injury

A personal injury, be it physical or mental trauma, can be life-changing. It can interfere with all aspects of your life. One of the ways in which an injury can change your life is making your experience financial hardship. 

An injury can have a devastating effect on you and your family, particularly because it can cause a lot of financial distress. 

How exactly an injury affects your finances? 

Medical expenses

The most obvious way in which an injury affects your financial stability is by requiring you to pay large amounts of money for your recovery. Whether you need to pay several visits to the doctor’s office to get medication or other treatments such as physical therapy or mental therapy, all these involve some really huge costs. 

Since an injury typically happens out of a sudden, if you don’t have an emergency fund, your financial stability can suffer a lot due to these sudden expenses.  

Loss of earnings

This is a major issue. An injury can cause you to take time off work, change your job, or even stop working at all because you may be unable to work following the accident that has caused your injury. 

Loss of earnings, particularly if you are your household’s only bread-winner, can lead to a lot more financial hardship to the point when you are unable to pay your mortgage, rent, utility bills, or cover other living expenses. 

Change to a lower-paid job

Changing your job to another lower-paid one can also be a result of an injury. Your injury may have made you unable to complete the tasks you had at your previous job. For example, if you work in a workplace that requires a lot of physical activity and the injury has made you unable to stand or walk, your working ability is severely affected. For this reason, you may change your job to a lower-paid job, such as a desk job. 

Complete loss of earning capacity

After an injury, the physical or mental damages can be so bad that you may even completely lose your earning capacity. The injury may have led to physical disabilities that may prevent you from moving, walking, or standing, which can affect your working abilities. Even mental traumas can lead to the complete loss of earning capability. Mental issues like depression or PTSD can cause you the inability to work. 

Ways to handle financial hardship after an injury

How can you overcome financial stress after suffering an injury? Don’t worry! No matter how hard it may seem to deal with financial problems right now, there are a few strategies that can help you find some relief: 

Discuss with your employer

If the injury’s damages require you to take some time off work, start by discussing with your employer to find out more about your paid leave options. Maybe you’ll find understanding in your employer, and you’ll be offered some paid time off to recover. 

Or, if the injury has affected your working abilities, maybe you can discuss with your employer to offer you a job in another position. Transitioning from one position to another in the same company is a lot easier than looking for a job in another company. Plus, you won’t be left without a salary for a long period of time.

Negotiate with your utility providers

If you didn’t know this by now, find that you may be able to ask your utility providers for an excuse or for smaller costs on your contracts. Providers for utilities such as energy, telephone, water, or Internet services might allow you to delay your payments while still providing you with their services. 

Or you can renegotiate your contracts for lower costs than you can afford to pay during this period of financial distress. 

Claim compensation

As the personal injury experts from CompensationCalculatorUK explain, “If you have suffered a personal injury that has been caused by another person’s or entity’s negligence or intention, you may be entitled to claim compensation for the medical expenses involved in your recovery, for your mental trauma caused by the injury, and for your lost wages or earning capacity.”

You can hire a personal attorney to file your claim and find out how much personal injury compensation you can be awarded based on your case. 

Give your insurance providers a call

If you’ve planned ahead for such situations, you’ve likely got health insurance. Now is the perfect time to call your health insurance provider and find out what medical expenses you can cover with your insurance plan. 

Health insurance plans typically pay for medication, doctor visits, and even physical recovery sessions. Discuss with your provider to find out if you can get some money for your medical expenses. 

Ask your family for help

Most people find it difficult to ask for financial support from their families. However, we assure you that there’s no shame in asking your loved ones to help you recover from this financially unstable situation. 

danielle

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