Long Term Disability

Balancing SSDI and Long Term Disability Insurance

Many of the people who come to Clawson & Clawson, LLP for help in filing a claim for Social Security Disability Insurance are also covered by a private long term disability insurance policy. If you have such a policy through your employer or one which you pay for out of pocket, the disability insurance carrier may require you to file a claim for Social Security before your claim for coverage through the private insurer will be approved. For many people, this comes as a shock. After paying for long term disability insurance through your payroll deductions our out of your own bank account, you were probably expecting that you would be able to receive benefits as soon as you were eligible.

The Insurance Company Is Not on Your Side

What you must remember, though, is that the insurance company is in business to make money, and that they achieve that goal by collecting premiums, not by paying on claims such as yours. Insurance companies will typically use any possible excuse they can find to minimize, delay or deny a claim for coverage. If you are eligible for SSD, therefore, they are likely to require you to obtain those benefits as a prerequisite to claiming benefits through your private insurance.

The reason why a private disability insurance company would require you to file a claim for Social Security before paying you benefits is that they will often use the amount you receive through SSD as a credit against the amount they have to pay you. Instead of being liable to pay the full amount, they would be able to reduce their payment to you according to the value of your SSD benefits.

The positive aspect of this situation is that if the Social Security Disability Determination Services staff decides to approve your claim, you can use this fact as evidence to support your claim for long term disability.