Today, the risk of American workers becoming disabled at some point before they retire is on the increase. Disability income insurance offers people in the work force the ability to receive compensation when they unexpectedly become disabled while working due to injury, or illness.
What are the benefits of disability income insurance? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits that disability income insurance can provide for someone in the work force.
-Monthly Income
If a worker becomes disabled due to illness or an accident, the individual’s insurance policy pays a specified amount of income according to their policy. For example, some insurance policies may pay up to 80 percent of the insured person’s earnings according to the income they received before they became disabled. It’s important to note that while most policies cover total disability coverage, some insurance policies differ concerning partial disability. It’s best to check with your insurance policy to determine what coverage you are entitled to.
-Type of Additional Health Insurance
An increase of health related problems due to obesity, smoking, and unhealthy lifestyles, makes obtaining disability insurance more important than ever. Unhealthy lifestyles can greatly increase your chances of becoming partially or totally disabled from the work force. Diabetes, high blood pressure, and excess weight can increase your risk for heart attack or stroke, thereby, preventing you from continuing in the work force for a specified amount of time. Obtaining disability income insurance is an added benefit of reassurance for health coverage, should you become disabled on the job.
-Avoid the Wait Time of Social Security Disability Benefits
Disability income insurance form your work place usually pays out within a few weeks of your claim, thereby generating a steady income flow that you were accustomed to at work.
This is not the case, however with Social Security disability benefits. If you become disabled before retirement age and want to collect social security disability benefits, there are strict rules associated with the benefits. There is usually up to a one year waiting period before receiving any benefits. If, however, there is a rejection, pending appeals can drag out the process even further.
-Long-term Disability Insurance Coverage
Disability income insurance offers the worker the option to purchase the long term disability, with typically up to 50-70 % of their previous work salary. Generally, workers opt to purchase short term disability coverage, but long-term insurance coverage offers more security for a monthly income over a longer period of time. Some work places include short term disability in their health insurance plans, but it’s best to check with your employee plan to be sure of your current coverage plan.
-Additional Rider Options
There are additional rider policies that can be purchased with the disability insurance that include, cost of living rider, and residual benefits rider. These options can offer the worker compensation between differences in an old and new salary. Cost of living rider will increase the value according to inflation.
Disability income insurance proves to be a wise choice for many workers considering income loss due to unforeseen illness, or accident at work.