In The (Likely) Event of Temporary Disability, Will You Be Covered?
Considering that disability insurance is one of the least understood of the major insurances, it now seems a fitting time to do a little disability preparedness check-in.
First, what is disability insurance (DI)? The bottom line is that DI is income protection. If you happen to be the one out of every four working Americans who will be affected by a non-work-related injury or illness causing short- or long-term absence from work before retirement age, DI could be the key to your financial survival during your physical recovery.
Disability Insurance provides a continuation of income when you are affected by an acquired disability. There are short-term plans (STD) that provide benefits for up to 32 weeks and long-term plans (LTD) that will pick up where STD ends and extend coverage for varying lengths of time (policy dependent).3 We may think we’re covered with Worker’s Comp and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI); however, there are circumstances where these benefits don’t apply and/or are not enough, including:
- Worker’s comp does not provide coverage for non-work-related injuries or illnesses
- The SSDI application and approval process is LONG (15+ months) and as of 2018, Only about 32% of SSDI claims are accepted due to certain disqualifiers 4
- You must have worked and made contributions to SSDI through payroll taxes to qualify (teachers often do not make these contributions.)
Are You Prepared?
More than half of working Americans are lacking disability coverage. Less than one-third of employees have access to employer-provided STD/LTD plans.5 Even if you’re one of the lucky minority whose employer offers DI coverage, and even if you’ve been paying into SSDI through payroll taxes, you may be surprised to find out that your coverage won’t be adequate should a crisis arise.
Do your future-self a favor and contact us today!
Thanks for reading!
Crystal Clark is a full-time animal lover and change maker.
Recent Comments