When you have an accident at work, there are likely a million things going through your mind, the least of which should be how you will continue to make money to support yourself. If you have experienced an incident on the job that has led to you inability to work, you may wish to file a work accident claim. Here are several other things to keep in mind.

1. Let your employer know about the accident immediately. All employers are obligated to report accidents at work, especially those that affect your health or physical well-being. This will help, even if you feel that the accident was not serious enough to warrant time off in your case because you may suffer from a related physical condition later on that was initiated by the accident.

2. Learn about your employer’s policy for sick pay. Ideally, this is something that you will do immediately after you are employed so that you can be prepared in case of an at-work injury. In most cases, the employer is only required to give you statutory sick pay. However, some companies also have an additional pay structure for sick time depending on your contract and how long you have been employed at the company.

3. Follow up with the employer to see if safety hazards have been eliminated. When or if you return to work, you should have a discussion with your employer to see if the conditions that led to your accident have been fixed.

4. Make a work accident compensation claim. If you feel that the accident occurred because of negligence on the part of your employer (that is, a failure to provide safe working conditions), you may also wish to file an accident claim to get compensation. In this case, you will likely need to hire a lawyer. The purpose of an accident claim should be to put you in a similar financial position to your earnings before the accident.

5. Take extra precautions in the future. In addition to expecting safe work conditions, this is also a good time to evaluate how you can prevent more accidents from occurring through vigilance and safety precautions.