<p>To me getting DI is like getting a bank loan. Youre probably in the best position to obtain it when you dont need it. In the case of DI, that means young and healthy. I purchased a DI policy after my child was born never thinking I would need it. I became disabled when my child was 15 (I was 49). Although the insurance company approved my claim within 30 days, SS was different. As nceph points out in post #17 above, the bar for SS disability is quite high. It took me two years of wandering through SSs byzantine appeals process before a judge finally ruled in my favor.</p>
<p>Agree about it being hard to get SS disability benefits, along with nceph’s analysis of private LTD coverage vs. SS disability. (I didn’t want to make mypost even longer, but nceph is absolutely correct.) My DH says that the SS Disability test is “if the mirror fogs when it’s up against your face, you don’t qualify.”</p>
<p>Mythinking was that if you’ve gone the rounds with the LTD docs, you at least have a semblance of successful documentation from the beginning. But yes, the definitions are often different. Read your SPD!</p>
<p>For people with my illness, it takes several rounds with SS to be successful in claiming benefit, and then, not always so. In the meantime, the house, the car, the dog, can all be foreclosed upon.</p>
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<p>This is the unfortunate reality, and it’s becoming worse, as waits for hearings get longer and longer due to staffing issues at SSA hearing offices. They seem to mostly have a sufficient number of judges (ALJs) to hear cases but an insufficient number of lower staff to work up the files for the ALJs before they’re ready to be heard. Knowing that the wait for SSDIB may be incredibly long may be one of the best reasons to get an LTDI policy, even if that policy may not cover you beyond two years.</p>
<p>Talk about several rounds with SS. </p>
<p>When my initial SS claim was denied, considering my circumstances and how fast my private claim was approved, I hired an attorney. When I first met with him, he put a form in front of me and wanted me to sign. I asked what is this, he said, its the form we need to file to appeal the denial of your initial claim. He then put another form in front of me and again I asked what it was. He said its the form we need to file to appeal the denial of your appeal of the denial of your initial claim. This form signing process went on and on until I finally got to the one where you get to ask for a hearing before a judge. The process for denial, appealing, denial, appealing, hearing, etc. can take a couple of years depending on where in the country you live.</p>
<p>Long Term disability allowed my children to continue with their activities, and yes, even apply to colleges without worry while their father fought cancer. Without it my daughter would not be at college right now. </p>
<p>Before he was diagnosed, and even when he first went into remission he was the picture of health, running daily, biking several times a week, eating healthy. The LT disability insurance was part of his companies benefit package. Otherwise we might not have taken it. Thank goodness his company was so forward thinking.</p>
<p>Maybe a contrarian view here. </p>
<p>When my kids were young (and so was I!) I maxed out on disability insurance - enough to replace 70% of my income, which was the limit - and got a half million in life insurance on both me and my wife. Last year I allowed all but a couple of $100K life policies to lapse (I have adverse tax consequences if I let them go.) I’m in my late 50’s, my two older kids are in college, my youngest is waiting for April 1. We’ve got 529 funds for each of the kids (1/2 the amount needed for 4 years at a state school) and, if I were to die, my IRAs and Keough would become available for my family. There would be financial issues if I were to become disabled or died at this point, but nothing that I think my wife couldn’t handle, and vice-versa. I balanced that against the thousands of dollars of after-tax premium payments needed to keep the policies in force and decided it was time to pull the plug on the backup. It’s a judgment call, the determination of which gets harder with each passing year. Last year I decided that the time had come where the premium cost was outweighing the potential benefit divided by the odds of needed the policy payoff.</p>
<p>“It’s a judgment call”</p>
<p>No Kluge, it’s a good call if it fits your situation. The best call you made was to get those things in place so you had an option. That is where people fall, waiting till they need an option and they find none is available. </p>
<p>Insurance doesn’t work after the fact. It has to be in place. Nothing wrong with deciding over time that those policies served their purpose. Absolutely nothing. </p>
<p>I guess the blessing is all you lost was some premium dollars rather than having to collect a benefit.</p>
<p>I’ll take that tradeoff every time!</p>
<p>What about getting disability insurance if you’re already disabled but want to protect against the (God-forbid) possibility of future, unrelated disability? How does that play in?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>If by “already disabled,” you mean you’re currently unable to work, I’m not sure what you mean by a “future, unrelated disability.” Disability insurance is used to replace lost income, and if you’re not working, you presumably have no income to replace. (or at least, whatever income you have is not related to your ability to work). Could you clarify what you’re asking, because I’m not sure I understand your question.</p>
<p>Sorry if that wasn’t clear… I have a disability that prevents me from doing a lot, but not all, types of work. I would want disability insurance in case I somehow became unable to do the work I can now do.</p>
<p>Is that clearer?</p>
<p>If you have a medical condition that prevents you from doing some types of work, you are looking for a policy that would replace part of the income you are currently able to earn. My guess is while it would be possible to find such a policy, you would need to read the terms very carefully to see what sort of exclusions the policy specifies. That can vary from company to company, policy to policy, so the only way to know if a policy would cover you with your current medical condition would be to read the specific policies you are considering.</p>
<p>tobia, </p>
<p>I’ll be honest, no you would not be able to get an individual policy if you have some disabilities now. Underwriting for disability is the tightest type done. You might try a Lloyds provider, but chances are not good. I’m sorry. I could be wrong, but I’ve been doing this awhile.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response, both of you. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised–I’m also barred from individual health insurance, any jobs that requires people to do lifting, residence in any place with stairs, etc, etc. Not that I’m complaining–my disability is non-progressive and non-fatal, so I consider myself relatively lucky so far.</p>
<p>Before I became ill, we considered reducing our term policies once the kids got out of college and we paid off those expenses. Now, I’m not so sure. If something happened to DH, things would get ugly pretty fast without his medical coverage. </p>
<p>At my previous job, we set up LTD policies for various small employers (among the other EE benefits work we did). Individual underwriting, months to get through medical reviews, exclusions galore – not a pretty sight. And that was just to GET a policy. There is security in working for a big employer – these kinds of plans are in place and written for a group, not individuals, so there is shelter for all.</p>