With no state disability program, where do South Carolina workers turn?

Disability help in South Carolina comes from separate programs that do not share an application: SSDI and SSI from Social Security, the state's workers' compensation system, and South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation. Unemployment through DEW is a different program again, with its own able-to-work rule.

SSDI and SSI from Social Security

For adult disability benefits, Social Security looks for a medical condition expected to last at least one year or to result in death, and that makes work hard or impossible. In short, SSDI turns on your work record and SSI on your income and resources.

How to apply, and who decides in South Carolina

You can start an SSDI application online with Social Security. To apply by appointment instead, call 800-772-1213, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in most U.S. time zones; help is available in English, Spanish, and other languages. The TTY line for people who are deaf or hard of hearing is 800-325-0778.

Once a case meets Social Security's rules that are not about your health, Social Security sends it to the state for the medical decision. In South Carolina that is the Disability Determination Services unit of South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation, which processes both SSDI and SSI claims from offices in West Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville.

Workers' compensation for an injury on the job

Workers' compensation is the state system for an injury or illness caused by work, and it runs through the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission. Its deadlines are strict.

Until your employer has notice, you get no physician's fees or compensation for that time, unless the employer already knew or you were prevented from telling them. The Commission can accept a reasonable excuse for late notice if the employer was not prejudiced. Reach the Commission at 803-737-5700, 1333 Main Street, Suite 500, Columbia, SC 29202-1715.

Vocational Rehabilitation and Ticket to Work

South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation helps people with disabilities find work; its stated goal is to match a person with the right job so both the person and the business succeed. Its state office is at 1410 Boston Avenue, West Columbia, SC 29171, phone 803-896-6500 or toll free 800-832-7526.

If you are aged 18 through 64 and receive SSDI, or receive SSI because of a disability, you may be eligible for Social Security's Ticket to Work program. Call it at 1-866-968-7842, or 1-866-833-2967 (TTY), Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. DEW is itself an Employment Network in the program: if you have a Ticket to Work voucher and want to look for work, DEW says to contact your local SC Works Center. DEW's phone directory also lists a Ticket to Work and Employment Network line at 1-800-436-8190.

No state disability insurance or paid family leave

South Carolina runs no temporary disability insurance program for workers. When the U.S. Department of Labor compared state laws in 2023, the places it listed with such a program were California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island.

South Carolina's 2024 Paid Family Leave Insurance Act, whose definitions took effect May 21, 2024, does define family leave insurance, but only as a private policy issued to an employer, sold as a rider to a group disability or life policy or as a separate group policy the employer chooses to buy. It is not a state benefit, and you cannot apply for it through DEW or any state agency. Ask your employer whether it carries such a policy.

A disability and DEW's able-to-work rule

To get unemployment in South Carolina you must be able to work, available for work, and actively looking. DEW's Claimant Handbook says available means able to start work tomorrow, and someone ill or injured is not eligible until able to work again. It also says you may be ineligible while receiving workers' compensation.

A disability does not rule you out if you can still work. If DEW finds it was medically necessary for you to stop working or change occupations because of your own illness or disability, the law counts that as a compelling family circumstance for leaving a job, and the same goes for the illness or disability of an immediate family member. The eligibility guide explains how DEW weighs reasons for leaving.

If most of your base-period work was part time, 51% or more of the weeks, DEW cannot deny benefits only because you now look for part-time work, as long as you are available for comparable hours. Social Security benefits do not reduce your weekly payment, because the law does not treat them as a pension; the benefit amounts guide covers the pensions that can.

To ask DEW for an accommodation for a disability, call 803.737.2381, use TTY Relay 711, or email ADA@dew.sc.gov.