Disability Insurance
Three out of every ten workers between the ages of 25 and 65 will have an injury that will leave them unable to work for three months or more. With this statistic, long term disability insurance is an important thing for a company to provide to its workers. Many employers do not offer this to their employees, preferring instead to offer short term disability insurance or none at all. However, disability insurance is considered to be one the most important benefits to receive at a job, especially long term disability insurance.
• Roughly 60% of individuals injuries happen when they are not working. Worker’s compensation will not help them since they were not injured as a result of their job. A long term disability plan can help the injured employee receive a portion of their salary while they are unable to earn a living. Usually, a long term disability policy will start up after the employees short term disability insurance has expired.
• Years ago, many employers chose to spring for the full price of long term disability insurance. Now, long term disability insurance is usually paid for in different ways. A disability insurer may help to fund the long term disability insurance. The other options are having the long term disability funded by the employer, the employee or a shared costs among both the employer and the employee. Employers are allowed to choose how much coverage that they will provide for their employees in term of salary percentages. The length of time of the plan benefits can be extended for a period of time. Some long term disability plans pay five to ten years worth of the disability benefits while will pay until the individual is 65-years-old, depending on which comes first. The average amount of the salary that one receives under the long term disability insurance is 50% to 70% of their current salary.
• For an employee to be eligible to receive long term disability they must meet the requirements of a working for a certain length of time with their employer as well as a former full-time work schedule with the company. Full time is considered 30 hours per week or more. Individuals receiving long term disability insurance should expect to receive a percentage of their salary paid monthly. They should also expect these long term disability payments to begin anywhere from 90 to 180 days after the occurrence.
Since long term disability insurance usually is a follow-up of short term disability insurance, an individual may want to get started on applying for a long term disability plan while they are still under short term coverage, if they know that they are going to be needing it. Short term disability insurance cannot be extended, it can only be turned into long term disability insurance.
