How Long Does Workers' Comp Last in Minnesota?

There is no single answer, because each Minnesota workers' comp benefit has its own clock. For recent injuries, wage checks while you cannot work at all (temporary total disability, or TTD) stop at 130 paid weeks. Checks that make up part of a lower post-injury wage (temporary partial disability, or TPD) stop at 275 paid weeks or 450 weeks after the injury, whichever comes first. Permanent total disability (PTD) runs to age 72, and medical care continues as long as treatment is reasonably needed. Your date of injury decides which version of each rule applies.

Temporary total disability: capped at 130 weeks

Minn. Stat. § 176.101, subd. 1 provides TTD benefits when you are completely unable to work because of a work injury.

TTD stops at 130 weeks. Subdivision 1(k) says the compensation "shall cease entirely when 130 weeks of temporary total disability compensation have been paid," and it counts initial and recommenced TTD together, no matter how much time has passed since the injury. The one exception is retraining: while you are in a retraining plan approved under § 176.102, subd. 11, the 130-week limit is paused, though the weeks before and after the plan still count.

The 130 figure applies to injuries on or after October 1, 2008. If you were hurt between October 1, 1995 and September 30, 2008, the cap is 104 weeks. Old claims do come back, so check your date of injury before counting weeks.

Most claims end well before the cap, because TTD also stops at whichever of these comes first:

• You return to work, either full duty or with restrictions that allow suitable employment.
• 90 days pass after written notice of maximum medical improvement (MMI).
• You withdraw from the labor market, or stop diligently searching for work within your restrictions.
• You refuse a suitable job offer.
• The insurer discontinues benefits by filing a Notice of Intention to Discontinue (NOID) under Minn. Stat. § 176.238. Timing depends on the ground: a return-to-work discontinuance can take effect on the return date, with notice served and filed within 14 days after the insurer learns of the return; other grounds follow the § 176.239 conference rules rather than a single advance-notice period.
• A compensation judge orders benefits stopped after a hearing.

TTD is a temporary benefit. If your condition stabilizes and you cannot return to any employment, the analysis shifts to permanent total disability.

One milestone along the way: at 104 weeks of TTD, the insurer must request a rehabilitation review conference under Minn. Stat. § 176.102, subd. 11(b). That is a checkpoint, not a cutoff. TTD can and does continue past 104 weeks when appropriate.

Use the TTD calculator to estimate your weekly benefit rate.

Temporary partial disability: 275 paid weeks or 450 weeks from injury

Minn. Stat. § 176.101, subd. 2 provides TPD benefits when you can work but earn less than before the injury because of physical restrictions.

TPD requires a work-related disability limiting your earning capacity and actual earnings below your pre-injury wage because of it. Subdivision 2(b) then sets two separate limits, and the first one you hit ends the benefit: 275 weeks paid, or 450 weeks measured from the date of injury.

The 275 applies to injuries on or after October 1, 2018; the 2018 amendment raised it from 225 weeks, so an older claim gets the smaller number. The 450-week wall was not changed and applies either way.

The two limits behave differently. The 275 counts weeks actually paid, so intermittent TPD stretches it out. The 450 is a calendar wall that keeps running whether or not anyone is paying you, which means a claim with long gaps can run out of time before it runs out of weeks. Benefits also stop earlier if your wages recover, you no longer have reduced earning capacity from the injury, or another statutory cessation rule applies. TPD does not end just because a doctor assigns a permanent rating or writes MMI, the way TTD can under the 90-day MMI rule.

Permanent partial disability: a one-time payment

Minn. Stat. § 176.101, subd. 3a governs PPD. Unlike TTD and TPD, PPD is not a weekly benefit. It is a one-time lump-sum payment (or scheduled installments) based on your permanent impairment rating.

There is no ongoing duration to track because it is a single payment. Once you reach maximum medical improvement and receive a rating, the PPD amount is calculated using the schedule in Minn. R. 5223 and the compensation rate for your date of injury.

The PPD payment does not depend on whether you return to work. It compensates for the permanent physical impairment itself: loss of function, not loss of wages.

Use the PPD calculator to estimate your lump-sum payment.

Permanent total disability: to age 72

Minn. Stat. § 176.101, subd. 4 provides PTD benefits when a work injury leaves you permanently unable to work in any capacity.

The date of injury decides which rule applies, and the two rules differ by five years:

Situation	PTD ends at
Injury on or after October 1, 2018	Age 72
Injury on or after October 1, 2018, sustained after age 67	Five years of PTD paid
Injury before October 1, 2018	Age 67, as a rebuttable presumption of retirement

The 2018 change is the one people get wrong most often. If you were told your benefits end at 67 and you were hurt on or after October 1, 2018, that is the old rule, and the mistake costs five years.

After PTD ends, you may still receive Social Security disability or retirement benefits, but Minnesota workers' comp wage-loss benefits stop at the age cap. The exceptions are very limited, and PTD disputes often involve significant litigation. If you believe you are permanently and totally disabled, that question is worth an attorney's review.

Use the PTD calculator to estimate your benefit duration and total.

Death benefits: a 10-year term for a surviving spouse

Minn. Stat. § 176.111 provides dependency benefits when a work injury causes death.

A surviving spouse with no dependent children is paid for a 10-year period from the date of death, at 50% of the wage at the time of the injury. When there are dependent children, the family rate continues until the youngest child is no longer dependent (generally age 18, or 25 if a full-time student). After that, the spouse is paid at the reduced spouse rate for a new 10-year period, not the leftover years of a clock that started at death. When only dependent children survive, benefits continue while dependency exists.

Medical benefits: as long as reasonably needed

Minn. Stat. § 176.135 requires the employer or insurer to furnish all medical treatment reasonably required to cure and relieve the effects of the work injury.

There is no automatic expiration date on medical benefits. They continue as long as the treatment is causally related to the work injury and is reasonable and necessary. That can mean years or even decades after the date of injury. Ongoing prescriptions, future surgeries, and pain management are all potentially covered. If an insurer denies a treatment request, you can file a medical request with the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).

The statute of limitations: when you must file

The statute of limitations is not about how long benefits last. It is about how long you have to start a proceeding. Miss the deadline and you may lose your right to benefits entirely.

The rule is not simply "three years from the injury." Under Minn. Stat. § 176.151(a), an employee generally must commence a proceeding within three years after a written report of the injury has been made to the commissioner (DLI), subject to an outer limit of six years from the accident. Occupational-disease claims have a separate statutory rule in subdivision 2.

Two dates matter. First, when was the written injury report filed with DLI? The three-year clock generally runs from that filing, not automatically from the day you got hurt. Second, when was the accident or legal date of injury? Even if the report was filed late, the proceeding generally cannot be started more than six years after the accident.

For Gillette and other cumulative injuries, the legal injury date and whether an employer injury report was filed can both change the analysis. Gillette claims do not get a separate "six-year rule" instead of the ordinary statute. The six years is an outer boundary in the same subdivision.

Voluntary benefit payments can affect timing in some situations, but the starting point is still whether a report was filed and when the accident occurred. Use the deadlines calculator with your actual dates rather than guessing from memory.

The limits side by side

Benefit type	Duration
TTD	130 weeks for injuries on or after 10/1/2008 (104 weeks before that), and sooner on return to work, 90 days post-MMI, or lawful discontinuance
TPD	275 weeks paid for injuries on or after 10/1/2018 (225 weeks before that), or 450 weeks from the date of injury, whichever comes first
PPD	One-time payment (no ongoing duration)
PTD	Age 72 for injuries on or after 10/1/2018 (five years if injured after age 67); age 67 before that
Death benefits	10-year term from the date of death for a surviving spouse (new 10-year term after children age out)
Medical	As long as treatment is reasonably needed
Statute of limitations	Generally 3 years after the written injury report reaches DLI, but no later than 6 years from the accident (occupational disease: separate rule)

If you have questions about your specific timeline, see when to talk to a lawyer.