People commonly insure their homes, cars, health and life with police that reimburse for anticipated costs. But what about the cost of losing your income because you can’t work due to illness or injury?
A short term disability insurance policy generally pays benefits from 90 days to one year. This means you will receive anywhere from 60 percent to 70 percent of your regular earnings while you can’t work to pay your mortgage and other daily living expenses.
Why Is Short Term Disability Insurance Needed?
One in three American workers between ages 35 and 65 will suffer a disability lasting 90 days or more and ninety percent of those will occur outside of work, meaning Workers Compensation coverage won’t apply.
At age 35, you have a 50 percent chance of experience a disability of 3 months or longer before age 65. At age 45, the probability of disability is 44 percent. Put this together with the fact that 80 percent of U.S. workers will exhaust their savings in only two months without the ability to earn income and, suddenly, disability insurance becomes a very affordable necessity.
Short term disability insurance pays monthly benefits after an elimination period (a period of time between your injury/illness and the start of benefits). Your monthly benefit depends on several factors including whether you are totally or partially disabled and the level of benefits you chose when you purchased your policy. Your benefits generally continue as long as you are under a physician’s care and are unable to return to work (for the duration of the benefit period you chose when you purchased your policy).
The Government Will Cover Me, Right?
American workers can be eligible for disability coverage from the federal Social Security Administration, but keep in mind:
The disability must be expected to keep you out of work for at least one year. The first payment from the government will not be received until at least 6 months after the disability has occurred. Almost 70 percent of first-time Social Security disability claims are denied. Most claims that are ultimately approved only happen after the claimant has retained a disability lawyer to assist.
Given that federal disability assistance only applies to situations expected to last over a year, the government does not have a program to provide assistance in the short term.
Is Short Term Disability Insurance Expensive?
The cost of short term disability insurance depends primarily on two factors:
Your health: The healthier you are, the less you’ll pay for insurance. Your income:The benefit you qualify for with a disability insurance policy will be a percentage of your income. The greater the benefit, the more expensive the disability coverage.
It is not at all unusual to have a policy that pays up to ,000 per month for less a premium of less than per month. Compare this to the cost of covering daily expenses from your bank account for 6 to 12 months and the cost of a short term disability insurance policy is small. An independent agent can get quotes from several providers that will enable you to compare before buying.
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