What Is 8 CCR §10133.31: SJDB Voucher Rules?

If no offer for regular, modified, or alternative work is made, pursuant to subdivision (b), the claims administrator shall furnish a "Supplemental Job Displacement Nontransferable Voucher For Injuries Occurring on or After 1/1/13" (Form DWC-AD 10133.32) within 20 calendar days from expiration of time for making an offer of regular, modified, or alternative work pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b).

What is 8 CCR §10133.31?

Section 10133.31 is the rule that walks your Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit voucher from the paperwork that starts it to the dollar limits on how you can spend it.

This rule applies when a 2013-or-later work injury leaves you with permanent partial disability and your employer does not make a qualifying offer of regular, modified, or alternative work in time. Labor Code section 4658.7 creates your right to the voucher itself; this regulation tells the claims administrator exactly how and when to issue it. An injury before January 1, 2013 falls under the older voucher instead, and this site’s guide to that earlier voucher explains the difference.

How does the 20-day voucher deadline actually work?

Once your claims administrator gets your doctor’s report, your employer has 60 days to offer you qualifying work, and if it does not, the claims administrator has 20 more calendar days to issue your voucher.

The clock starts when your claims administrator receives the Physician’s Return-to-Work and Voucher Report, the form your doctor completes once your condition is permanent and stationary. The claims administrator must forward that form to your employer, and your employer then has 60 days to offer regular, modified, or alternative work that fits the work capacities and restrictions the doctor described. This site’s guide to those three kinds of job offer explains what counts as a valid one. If no qualifying offer is made in time, the claims administrator must furnish the voucher itself within 20 calendar days after that 60-day window closes.

One thing can take you out of this particular path. If you lost no time from work, or you went back to the same job with the same employer, section 10133.31(c) treats you as already having accepted a qualifying offer under the criteria in Labor Code section 4658.7(b). Do not confuse this with Labor Code section 4658.6, a similar-sounding 30-day offer rule that only lets an employer avoid the older voucher for injuries from 2004 through 2012. For an injury on or after January 1, 2013, the 60-day offer window above is what controls instead. If you are not sure whether an offer you received actually qualifies, this site’s Labor Code 4658.7 guide covers who qualifies in more depth.

What can you spend the $6,000 voucher on?

The voucher covers education, licensing, job-placement help, tools, and computer equipment, each inside its own smaller limit within the overall $6,000.

The voucher pays for tuition, fees, books, and other costs at a California public school or a state-approved training provider, plus occupational licensing and certification fees and exam costs. It also covers tools required by the specific training or educational program you are enrolled in. A combined $600 inside that total covers licensed placement agency services, vocational counseling, and resume help. Up to $1,000 can go toward computer equipment, using a separate request form and your receipts, and your employer can choose to give you a computer directly instead. Up to $500 more is available for miscellaneous expenses without needing itemized receipts. None of it can go toward transportation, travel, phone or internet service, clothing, or entertainment. This site’s voucher claiming guide walks through the paperwork for each category.

When does the voucher expire, and can you settle it for cash instead?

Your voucher expires two years after it is issued or five years after your injury, whichever is later, and the law does not let you settle or cash out the voucher claim itself.

You must incur the expense and submit it with documentation before the voucher expires. Section 10133.31(h) states plainly that settlement or commutation of a claim for this voucher is not permitted, so a compromise and release cannot simply buy the voucher out for a lump sum. This site’s voucher guide explains what your settlement paperwork should still say about an unused voucher, since the voucher itself keeps existing even after the rest of your case settles.

What happens after you turn in your receipts?

The claims administrator has 45 calendar days from receiving your completed request and documentation to pay you or your provider.

Once you submit the voucher along with your receipts and paperwork, section 10133.31(j) gives the claims administrator 45 calendar days to issue payment, whether that goes to you directly or to a training provider, counselor, or computer retailer on your behalf. The same 45-day clock applies if your employer is giving you computer equipment directly instead of reimbursing you for it. There is also no separate advance notice warning you the voucher is coming. The current rule replaced that older notice, so the voucher itself, due within 20 calendar days of a missed job offer, is the first document you should expect.

What should you do if your voucher is late or you are not sure it applies to you?

Keep your doctor’s report, any job offer letter, and your voucher paperwork, and ask promptly if a deadline above has already passed.

Call (661) 273-1780 or use the contact form for a free consultation. Bring your permanent and stationary report, any work offer from your employer, and anything the claims administrator has sent you about the voucher. Yazdchi Law P.C. reviews each workers’ compensation matter on its own facts before deciding whether to take it on.