What disability benefits can you claim in Minnesota?

The words disability benefits cover several separate programs in Minnesota, and only one of them is run by the department that also handles unemployment. Paid Leave belongs to the state; Social Security Disability Insurance and SSI belong to the federal government and follow their own rules.

Minnesota Paid Leave, and who it covers

Paid Leave launched on January 1, 2026. DEED runs it, and it provides payments, job protections, and health insurance continuation while you are away from work.

It covers medical leave for your own serious health condition, bonding leave for a child through birth, adoption, or foster placement, caring leave for a family member with a serious health condition, safety leave to respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking of you or a family member, and military family leave to support a family member called to active duty.

To receive Paid Leave payments you must have earned at least $3,900 in the last year, from one job or combined across several.

A few groups sit outside the program. Independent contractors, self-employed individuals, and Tribal Nations are not covered but can opt in. Federal government employees, postal workers, and railroad employees are not covered and cannot opt in. A position designated as seasonal hospitality employment is excluded from Paid Leave for that position.

A Paid Leave claim has to rest on a single qualifying event lasting at least 7 calendar days, in a row unless the leave is taken intermittently, and by statute those 7 days are a retroactively payable period rather than an unpaid waiting period. Benefits related to bonding do not have to meet that requirement, and eligibility for bonding leave ends 12 months after the birth or placement of the child.

Job protections generally start 90 days after your date of hire. Pregnancy-related Medical Leave and Bonding Leave carry job protection however long you have been employed, and no employer may retaliate against you for applying for or using Paid Leave, whatever your length of service.

What Paid Leave pays, and for how long

Most people receive between 55% and 90% of their regular wages while on Paid Leave, with the maximum set at the state's average wage, currently $1,423 a week.

Paid Leave's own estimator gives the bands in dollars.

The weekly Paid Leave payment cannot go above $1,423 whatever you earn, and the earnings test is 5.3% of the state's average annual wage earned in the past year, which Paid Leave currently puts at about $3,900.

In a single benefit year, Paid Leave allows up to 12 weeks of Family Leave and up to 12 weeks of Medical Leave. If you need both in the same benefit year, the combined total is capped at 20 weeks, not 24.

How to apply for Paid Leave

Applications go through an online Paid Leave account, and every one of them needs certification from a healthcare provider or another professional. There is no expedited route: every application goes through the same review, and the fastest way through is a complete application with all the required information and documents.

• If you have to start before your documents are ready, you must still submit all the required documents within 14 days.
• If your leave started more than 7 days before you applied, Paid Leave will ask you to explain why you could not apply earlier, and cannot process the application until you reply.

Apply and track the application on the Minnesota Paid Leave site. For a question about Paid Leave, call 1-844-556-0444. For help in a language other than English, call 651-556-7777.

Paid Leave and unemployment are not the same claim

DEED's own comparison table answers this directly: while you are receiving Unemployment Insurance you cannot receive Paid Leave payments and cannot take Paid Leave time. By statute, a Paid Leave applicant is ineligible for any portion of a week they are receiving or have received unemployment insurance benefits. The same table says a person on Social Security Disability Insurance cannot receive Paid Leave payments or take Paid Leave time either, except in limited situations.

Paid time off is where unemployment insurance and Paid Leave answer the same question in opposite directions, and mixing them up costs a week's money. Under unemployment insurance, vacation pay, sick pay, or PTO for a week that equals or exceeds your weekly benefit amount makes you ineligible for that week; below that amount, the week is still paid and your unemployment benefits are reduced by the amount of the payment, unless the payment follows a permanent separation or comes from a union or third-party vacation fund the employer does not control. A Paid Leave employee, by contrast, may choose to use vacation pay, sick pay, or paid time off in place of Paid Leave benefits while staying concurrently eligible. Paid Leave calls that a substitute payment: the Paid Leave payment is reduced, the time still counts against the Paid Leave time available, the payments must be reported to Paid Leave, and no employer can require you to use them.

A Paid Leave weekly benefit amount is also prorated when the covered individual works hours for wages, uses paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, or other paid time off, unless that pay is a supplemental benefit payment, or the leave is taken intermittently. A supplemental benefit payment is an employer payment made as salary continuation or paid time off that sits on top of your Paid Leave benefits rather than replacing them, either added to them or offered to supplement them. An employer may treat salary continuation, vacation leave, sick leave, or other paid time off that way but does not have to, you are never obliged to take one, and the top-up and the leave benefit together can never come to more than your regular wage or salary.

Social Security disability splits the same way, and the doctor's letter each program wants is not the same letter. An unemployment insurance claimant who is receiving, has received, or has filed for primary Social Security disability benefits is ineligible for unemployment that week, unless the Social Security Administration approved collecting disability each month they were employed during the base period, or a health care professional certifies that they are available for suitable employment. A Paid Leave applicant who is receiving, has received, or has filed for primary Social Security disability benefits is ineligible for that week on the same terms, unless the Social Security Administration gave that same base-period approval, or a health care professional certifies that they are able to perform the essential functions of their employment with or without a reasonable accommodation. Either exception means no deduction is made from the weekly benefit amount in the program it applies to.

Social Security Disability Insurance and SSI

Social Security Disability Insurance, which the Social Security Administration also calls Disability, provides monthly payments to people who have a disability that stops or limits their ability to work. Individuals may be eligible if they have a disability or blindness and enough work history. The instructions for applying are on the administration's own page for Social Security Disability Insurance.

Supplemental Security Income is the other federal payment, and it turns on income and resources rather than work history. SSI provides monthly payments to people with disabilities and older adults who have little or no income or resources. Adults and children might be eligible if they have little or no income, little or no resources, and a disability, blindness, or are age 65 or older. The administration's page for Supplemental Security Income carries its application instructions.

Neither payment is run by DEED.

Claiming unemployment when you have a disability

This is the one place a disability meets an unemployment claim. An unemployment insurance claimant can only be paid for a week they are able and willing to accept work, and DEED spells out what that means: transportation and any necessary family care arranged, physically and mentally able to perform work, and willing to accept the hours, wage, commuting distance, and other conditions normal for someone in your occupation with your skills and experience. If you have medical restrictions, you have to seek work you have the ability and qualifications to perform.

That test is about unemployment benefits only, and it cuts the way you would not want: you are not eligible for an unemployment week a medical condition or other circumstance prevents you from working or from looking for work.

Minnesota law frames the same test as availability. Available for suitable employment means ready, willing, and able to accept suitable employment, with a genuine attachment to the work force and no other restriction, self-imposed or created by circumstances, that prevents you accepting it. You may restrict your availability to suitable employment, but any further restriction fails the test.

Who qualifies for Minnesota unemployment covers the rest of the weekly tests.

Vocational Rehabilitation Services and State Services for the Blind

Eligibility for Vocational Rehabilitation Services turns on whether a physical or mental disability makes it difficult to prepare for, get, or keep work. Its St. Paul office is at 2200 University Avenue W, Suite 240, St. Paul, MN 55114, phone 651-539-4140, open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and Vocational Rehabilitation Services describes what its counselors do.

State Services for the Blind is for people with significant vision loss that makes it hard to get and keep a job. It is headquartered in St. Paul, with 11 satellite offices around the state; the head office is at 2200 University Avenue W, St. Paul, MN 55114, phone 800-652-9000, the same weekday hours. State Services for the Blind has the rest.

Minnesota unemployment phone numbers and local offices lists the CareerForce locations across the state, with the hours of the ones that are not open all week.