Short vs long term disability?

[Bimmerbill]

To continue on my theme of preparing for the worst (I gotta be more positive!) I'm looking at disability insurance.

SS disability is long term, right? I know it can take a long time to kick in and there may be hoops to jump thru.

SS disability will pay me $1890 a month, and my job (disability retirment) will pay $2350 a month if I become disabled and can no longer perform my job. Not sure the burden of proof for either tho, but suspect both are long and hard processes with a lot of red tape.

So, how do I figure if I need short term disability, or additional long term?

 

[hankster]

My job has both short term and long term disability coverage as an employee benefit. If I had to purchase my own, I would focus on good long term disability coverage first and let the short term protection be a big a$$ pile of emergency funds.

 

[MikeD]

Most of the time, the long term company provided type of disability insurance has fine print that it is reduced by the amount that you get from SS. That's the way mine was. I had Unum and when I started SS disability they reduced it by *exactly* that amount.

Mike D.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Good point. My work provided disability is not a policy and I don't have to pay for it. Its medical retirement, so it's probably my pension paying me if I can't work any more.

 

[rs0460a]

I know it can take a long time to kick in and there may be hoops to jump thru.

Yes, it takes a long time.

"Many hoops" include recertification of the "condition" on an ongoing basis, once you start collecting benefits.

You can get Medicare (even though under the age of 65), but coverage only starts 24 months after SSD is declared by SSA.

- Ron

 

[GoodSense]

I also plan to use emergency fund to ride out the need until long-term disability kicks in.

 

[Canadian Grunt]

Good point. My work provided disability is not a policy and I don't have to pay for it. Its medical retirement, so it's probably my pension paying me if I can't work any more.

You should have medical leave that covers very short term.

You could buy a small insurance policy to hold you for several months to a year. You could use several of insurance, mortgage insurance, or self insure from savings, investments or a combination of all three.


After that you would be forced to retire and since you work for the Fed should be covered by a medical retirement with COLA.

The long term portion would be SS Disability which would likely reduce your civil service pension.