Workers of all ages become disabled for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes, a disability happens as a result of a work-related injury. In other cases, you may become disabled because of an accident outside of work or because of an illness or medical condition that you develop. When a disability lasts a long time and prevents you from working, this can be a devastating financial disaster for you and for your family members. Fortunately, you have some protections in place in the form of various programs that provide long term disability benefits.
Options for Long Term Disability
Long term disability benefits may be provided through a number of different means. For example:
• Your employer may purchase long term disability insurance for you as part of your benefits package or self-insure such a program. When this occurs, often the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) governs the rules for administration of these disability benefits.
• You may have long term disability benefits as part of a program established by your city government employer. These disability programs have specific rules that establish entitlement to benefits.
• You may receive disability benefits as part of workers’ compensation. These benefits are available for both temporary and long term disabilities and for both permanent and partial disabilities. However, they are available only if your injury or illness arose out of and in the course of your employment.
• You may receive disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) through either Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits (SSDIB) or through Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSDIB is available to people who have worked for long enough to meet minimum requirements while SSI is available to lower income individuals whose families have limited resources.
In some cases, you may be able to receive long term disability benefits from more than one of these programs, so it is very important that you speak with a disability lawyer to learn what your options are.
Getting Benefits
In order to get your claim started, you will need to request an application packet from your Human Resources Department and complete the application in full. Speaking to your human resources department is also the right choice if you need to make a worker’s compensation claim or if you need to find out information about making a claim through your ERISA-governed disability insurance policy.
In some cases, employers, insurers or the SSA will try to deny you benefits you deserve or will attempt to unfairly limit the benefits you are receiving. This is very common as your employer may deny you are disabled or deny the extent of your disability. Because so many people have legitimate claims denied when applying for disability benefits, it is very important to speak with an experienced Torrance disability rights lawyer for help whenever you are suffering from a long term disabling injury, illness or medical condition.