The Social Security Administration and your long-term disability insurance company typically use different definitions of disability to determine whether you are entitled to benefits. As a result, one program may find that you became disabled as of one date, and the other may find that you became disabled as of another date. The two disability benefits programs also are likely to have different elimination or waiting periods, which can result in you beginning to receive benefits from each program on different dates. For example, you must be disabled for five months before you can start receiving Social Security disability benefits. The elimination period for LTD benefits, however, is often much shorter, such as 60 or 90 days.

Most people also find that the process of being approved for Social Security disability benefits is much lengthier than the approval process for long-term disability benefits. Due to these differences in dates, a claimant often will begin receiving long-term disability benefits long before he or she starts receiving Social Security disability benefits.

Most long-term disability benefits policies have offset provisions, which reduce the amount of LTD benefits that you can receive by the amount of Social Security Disability benefits that you can receive. For instance, if you are receiving $3,000.00 per month in LTD benefits, but later begin to receive $1,000.00 per month in Social Security disability benefits, then your monthly LTD benefit will drop to $2,000.00 per month. You will still receive the same amount of monthly benefit, but you will now receive it from both sources rather than from just the LTD policy.

The combination of these offset provisions and the differences in dates of approval and benefits payouts for the two programs can cause you to incur an overpayment of benefits. Many people find themselves facing a significant overpayment of LTD benefits, often due to the length of time that it has taken them to qualify for Social Security disability and begin receiving benefits. Due to an approval process that may take months or even years if an appeal is necessary, you often will receive a lump sum of retroactive benefits. In other words, you will receive benefits for those months in which you were disabled and should have been receiving Social Security disability. In the meantime, however, if you have been drawing LTD benefits during those months, your LTD benefits should have been offset by the Social Security benefits. This scenario can result in a substantial overpayment that you now must repay to your insurance company.

As you can see, the interaction of LTD benefits and Social Security disability benefits can have unanticipated effects that may result in you owing money to your insurance company. Therefore, if you need to apply for long-term disability benefits and Social Security disability benefits, you may greatly benefit from calling us today and getting the advice that you need. Bonnici Law Group has the experience and knowledge that is invaluable when applying and qualifying for long-term disability benefits. When you need answers, contact Bonnici Law Group today at 858-261-5454. As we focus our efforts on long-term disability claims, we know how to protect your rights and build a strong demand for compensation in your case.