Disability Insurance Benefits And Eligibility – Disclaimer: The following information provided here is for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal or medical advice. All information obtained from www.ssa.gov.
The Social Security and Supplemental Disability Income programs are the largest of several Federal programs that provide assistance to people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a person with a disability as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. This includes people who have a record of such an impairment, even if they do not currently have a disability. It also includes people who do not have a disability but are considered to have a disability. The ADA also makes it illegal to discriminate against a person based on that person’s association with a person with a disability. More. Although these two programs are different in many ways, both are administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and only people who have a disability and meet medical criteria can qualify for benefits under either program.
Disability Insurance Benefits And Eligibility
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) pays benefits to you and certain members of your family if you are “insured,” meaning you have worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes.
What Is Disability Insurance And What Type Of Disability Income Policy Should You Buy?
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) SSI is a federal cash assistance program for those with limited income AND are either age 65 or older or blind or disabled. Adult SSI recipients must have limited income and resources ($2,000 in assets); parents’ income is not considered for adult applicants. You don’t have to have any work history. Monthly benefit payments are determined by the current benefit rate ($750 per month in 2018), minus any “countable income.” More pays benefits based on financial need.
SSDI provides benefits to disabled or blind people who are “insured” by workers’ contributions to the Social Security fund. These contributions are based on your earnings (or those of your spouse or parents) as required by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Title II of the Social Security Act authorizes SSDI benefits. Your dependents A dependent is someone who is supported by another person, such as a child who is supported by his or her parents. More may also be eligible for benefits based on your earnings record.
SSI is a federal program that provides monthly payments to people who have limited income and few resources. It is intended for people who are 65 or older, as well as those of any age, including children, who are blind or who have developmental disabilities.
Apply as soon as you become disabled. It can take three to five months to process a claim for disability benefits, but it can be processed more quickly if additional requests for information are handled in a timely manner.
May Is Disability Insurance Awareness Month!
You can start the process and complete much of your application online. You may be eligible to complete your application online if:
The Office of Disability Determination Services completes the initial determination of disability. State agency doctors and disability specialists will ask your doctors for information about your condition(s). They will consider all the facts in your case and use medical evidence from your doctors, hospitals, clinics or other institutions where you have been treated.
Once a decision has been made, you will receive a letter regarding the determination. If approved, the letter will outline your benefit amount, when your payments begin, and your reporting responsibilities. If it is not approved, the letter will explain why and tell you how to appeal the decision if you do not agree with it. No one wants to take a 40-60% pay cut if they get injured or go on maternity leave – especially after a decade of training plus thousands of dollars in medical or dental costs. Most employers provide short-term and long-term disability insurance as part of the benefits packages they offer to employees. Employer or group disability insurance policies are great if an injury interferes with your ability to see patients or perform surgery, but it probably doesn’t cover your full income. Many group plans only cover 60% (or less) of your income, which can be closer to 40% when taxes come around. Supplemental disability insurance for doctors, also called individual or private disability insurance, can help you bridge the income gap and reach 80% of your income, which is manageable if you become injured, ill or disabled. Disability can happen for many reasons. You might be thinking, “Now why in the world would I be thinking about that?” I am a young healthy person. I have never had any health problems. This is not something I need to think about now. “Maybe I’ll start thinking about that when I’m older.” The truth is, it’s never too early to start planning for your health. Disability insurance for doctors is critically important. You might not think anything could go wrong, but take a look at this list of common things you see and treat every day as a doctor. These are the top 10 causes of disability: Cancer Musculoskeletal Injuries Cardiovascular Pregnancy Nervous System Infectious Diseases Digestive System Respiratory Diseases Nervous System This infographic below shows disability in all shapes and sizes. Check out ours for more specific stats. What is Supplemental Disability Insurance for Physicians? Supplemental disability insurance is a type of insurance that insures a portion of your income. Just as auto insurance protects your car and home insurance protects your home, disability income protects a portion of your income lost due to disability, illness or injury. Disability income insurance ensures that money keeps coming into your household to pay the bills if you are unable to work and earn a living due to accident or illness. How does supplemental disability insurance work? To understand how disability income insurance works, let’s look at a case study. Dr. Sara recently graduated and has a job as an OB/GYN doctor at Lexington Hospital making $225,000 a year and has a group disability insurance policy. This means that the hospital (at no cost to her) has a group plan so that if she is unable to work due to illness, health condition or accident, they will pay her a portion of her income for an extended period. time. Sarah will file a long-term disability claim in this scenario. See her earnings in the picture below. In her case, the group plan would cover 60 percent of her earnings and they would pay her until age 65. The other caveat with a group plan is that they wouldn’t pay more than $10,000 a month, regardless of what 60 percent actually is. As you can see here in the chart above, her normal income is $18,750 per month. If she files for disability insurance, 60 percent of her $225,000 annual salary is $135,000. On a monthly basis that would equate to $11,250. $135,000 รท 12 months = $11,250 per month If Sarah can’t work – instead of earning $18,750 each month – she won’t earn the full $11,250 because she’ll hit that $10K per month limit. , resulting in a significant loss in revenue. Furthermore, it’s important to note that that $10k per month is still treated as taxable earnings for her, so after she pays income taxes, her take home pay will be closer to $6-7k per month. Would this be enough money to comfortably cover her monthly expenses such as your mortgage, groceries, utilities, car payment, child support, etc.? Is there a delay in the payment of disability insurance? For most disability insurance claims, disability income begins after the elimination period. For a typical short-term disability plan, it may start paying you 7-14 days after your injury or illness, while long-term disability has a phase-out period of 90 days or longer. In Sarah’s case, her $10,000-a-month disability benefits won’t start until she’s been unable to work for three months. The check usually comes at the END of the fourth month, so that’s one of the reasons why we always recommend having an adequate emergency fund. Although most disability insurance claims last about 34.6 months, long-term disability can also occur due to early-onset Alzheimer’s, musculoskeletal problems, or other unforeseen events. Whether the disability claim lasts for 2 years or 20 years, Sarah’s limit of $10k per month does not change. NO adjustment for inflation, no adjustment for cause of loss (COL). This static disability income is a feature often associated with group disability insurance, which is not the case with private or personal disability income insurance. With private or supplemental disability income insurance, there is much more flexibility in how the policy is designed to take into account inflation, future income and other important factors. What if you can go back to work, but not at the same capacity? Come on
