Million of Working Americans are offered long term disability insurance from companies like Unum and Signa. The concept of this employee benefit is to protecting your self in the event you can’t work. Which to most makes totally since until you dig a little bit and learn how long your covered and that you may have to apply for Social Security Disability (SSDI).
According the New York Times article these policies have tie in to SSDI is a pitfall thats causing a mammoth back log in the SSDI system (average wait for a hearing is 512 days).
In addition to the wait the SSDI tie in is setting false qualification expectations for Social Security Disability which can leads to years of distress, Here is the deal and what you can do about it.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) qualification for disability is significantly more difficult than long term disability companies. For SSA you have to prove that you can not do any job in the United State including a job like a ticket taker at movie theater greeter at Wal-Mart.
Long disability is less stringent typically one can collect when they are unable to do their own jobs for some period, usually more than five months
So the real problem is that LTD insurance companies are in bed with the feds… surprising huh!
The deal is that LTD company’s only have to pay the difference between (offset) the LTd benefit and the SSDI benefit. Which is a HUGE financial incentive for LTD companies to push their policy holder onto the federal SSDI program …. here is an example
LTD policy pays $2200.00 per month
SSDI benefit pays $1500.00 per month
Once approved for SSDI the LTD company only has to pay the difference between the the LTd and SSDI policies. This is a only $700 per month saving the LTD company $1500.00 per month.
So here my tip …. if your LTD company forces you to file for SSDI understand that it is most likely for their reasons not yours. And make darn sure that your take my FREE mini course to understand if you have qualify for SSDI to save you the aggravation of the process.
Because if you don’t and your LTD company is forcing you into the Social Security application process for their own selfish reasons and you don’t qualify your gonna have a couple of years of hell… just like Ms Ortiz in this New York Times article.
My Goal is to empower you with the knowledge to weave through the disability system,
Brian Therrien
