by Guest » Mon Apr 12, 2010 02:43 pm
I was terminated (NY state) after 12 weeks of disability (employer could not make the reduced-schedule accommodation required by the physicians), and I have a claim under review for temporary, partial long term disability (group insurance). Can I file for unemployment if I have a claim requesting temporaty partial LTD?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 10:33 am Post Subject:
You can always file for unemployment. Understand, however, that language in the LTD policy will coordinate the policy's benefit with any other income benefit you receive. If your LTD benefit is $200 per week, and unemployment pays $250 per week, you'll get the $250 from unemployment and $0 from your LTD policy. Not $200 + $250.
Why? Because your policy will not pay on top of other benefits. You will get the full value of your policy benefit either from the policy alone, or from other sources first, plus enough from your policy to provide as much as your policy would provide on its own. This is known as "benefit integration", and governmental sources of income usually take precedence over the policy. (In some cases, the governmental benefit will be reduced by the amount of private insurance benefit you receive. It has the same effect. One of the two scenarios will paly out.)
Certain LTD policies for highly skilled occupations (doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants) may permit a person disabled under the policy to continue to earn money doing other kinds of work than their former occupation and receive their disability benefit, too, but not to exceed their former income when all income and benefits are combined (or a percentage of that former income, such as 60-70%).
You'll have to read your policy to know for sure.
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