Re: Social security Disability help

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Wow, you mean that we can't claim disability when we can't work after so many years of paying into the system?? Personally, that is the only insurance I never bought privately. Thus, I'll probably have to die on top of some poor patient!!

Let me know if you're still coming up this way. Still would like to buy you lunch or dinner.

Thanks,

, (DDS with CLL in Sacramento area)

In a message dated 3/16/2010 12:16:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, briankoffman@... writes:

Friends,Every few months I get a new person handling my private disability. The latest wants me to apply for social security disabilityFirst, I wonder what is the motivation? To save my private group insurance some money I suspect which is fair, but sorry, I am deeply suspicious of insurance companies and wonder if they are up to more. To their credit, they are willing to help me with the forms.Second, I seem to recall that CLL, now more than a year after a transplant, is a no-go for federal disability.Any advise or experience is welcome.I will try to share soon my news from Israel and Stanford, but my energy has been low.Thanks

[Guest guest]

Hi Doc,Your disability insurance carrier is trying to reduce the amount of payment that they are responsible for. You will still receive the same amount but they will reduce their portion according to the amount social security sends you each month. Somewhere in the fine print of your plan it will say something about this option. That being said I would not corporate at all! Make them do all the work and drag your feet because this will lower your lifetime benefit from social security. Good luck and hang in there Social security Disability help

Friends,

Every few months I get a new person handling my private disability.

The latest wants me to apply for social security disability

First, I wonder what is the motivation? To save my private group

insurance some money I suspect which is fair, but sorry, I am deeply

suspicious of insurance companies and wonder if they are up to more.

To their credit, they are willing to help me with the forms.

Second, I seem to recall that CLL, now more than a year after a

transplant, is a no-go for federal disability.

Any advise or experience is welcome.

I will try to share soon my news from Israel and Stanford, but my

energy has been low.

Thanks

[Guest guest]

Dear ,Your SSD should not be affected by private disability or vice versa. SSD can be affected by certain other things you're collecting but usually they must also be some type of government program you're in.So there should be no reason for your private ins. to "push" you to do SSD -- I think you're the only one that would gain.Now, if you bear in mind that the basic criterion for SSD is that a person can no longer work at the job they were doing due to the illness, you can see why they got more strict about CLL and also AIDS, both of which used to be "automatic" ins for SSD. Many of us can continue to work for much of the time. Just think in those terms -- can you still work all the hours you once did at the same line of work you did or has your CLL affected these? If so, can you substantiate that? Check out the website: https://socialsecurity-disability.org/ and click on "free evaluation." That lets you put in your own circumstances and see if you qualify.The 2nd thing to keep in mind with SSD is always, always to appeal if you're turned down once but do it with an attorney who knows about SSD. You can consult free with such an attorney ahead of applying the first time for some suggestions. If you decide to use their services, you usually only pay little or nothing unless they do help you get SSD. Then the fee is pretty reasonable.I collected both Fed. SSD and a private disability insurance. Fed. SSD is actually usually a bit more than regular Social Security so it's worth looking into. Hope this helps.-Ellen Diamond On Mar 16, 2010, at 3:16 AM, Koffman wrote:

Friends,

Every few months I get a new person handling my private disability.

The latest wants me to apply for social security disability

First, I wonder what is the motivation? To save my private group

insurance some money I suspect which is fair, but sorry, I am deeply

suspicious of insurance companies and wonder if they are up to more.

To their credit, they are willing to help me with the forms.

Second, I seem to recall that CLL, now more than a year after a

transplant, is a no-go for federal disability.

Any advise or experience is welcome.

I will try to share soon my news from Israel and Stanford, but my

energy has been low.

Thanks

[Guest guest]

Hi All - I'm in the middle of this too - and thank and Ellen for their

responses.

What I'm confused about is how this all ends up lowering lifetime benefits?

In my situation, I went on short-term disability then went back to work for a

bit - now am off again and reapplying for short-/long-term disability. Don't

know the outcome yet. I'm hoping to be back at work when I finish up treatment.

Meanwhile, I do want to protect my lifetime benefits (kind of like trying to

preserve the lifetime benefits of rituxan?

thanks for all of your input!

>

> Hi Doc,

>

> Your disability insurance carrier is trying to reduce the amount of payment

that they are responsible for. You will still receive the same amount but they

will reduce their portion according to the amount social security sends you each

month. Somewhere in the fine print of your plan it will say something about this

option. That being said I would not corporate at all! Make them do all the work

and drag your feet because this will lower your lifetime benefit from social

security.

>

> Good luck and hang in there

>

>

> Social security Disability help

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Friends,

>

> Every few months I get a new person handling my private disability.

> The latest wants me to apply for social security disability

>

> First, I wonder what is the motivation? To save my private group

> insurance some money I suspect which is fair, but sorry, I am deeply

> suspicious of insurance companies and wonder if they are up to more.

> To their credit, they are willing to help me with the forms.

>

> Second, I seem to recall that CLL, now more than a year after a

> transplant, is a no-go for federal disability.

>

> Any advise or experience is welcome.

>

> I will try to share soon my news from Israel and Stanford, but my

> energy has been low.

>

> Thanks

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

& Marietta,That just didn't happen in my case -- my private insurance was not reduced as a result of my collecting SSD or vice versa but if you read the information guides for both policies and/or talk to your representatives they should spell this out. I know if I'd been on State retirement disability and SSD (Federal) at the same time, there would have been a weighted averaging of both down to a certain amount. -Ellen Diamond On Mar 16, 2010, at 10:49 AM, mariettabrill wrote:

Hi All - I'm in the middle of this too - and thank and Ellen for their responses.

What I'm confused about is how this all ends up lowering lifetime benefits?

In my situation, I went on short-term disability then went back to work for a bit - now am off again and reapplying for short-/long-term disability. Don't know the outcome yet. I'm hoping to be back at work when I finish up treatment.

Meanwhile, I do want to protect my lifetime benefits (kind of like trying to preserve the lifetime benefits of rituxan?

thanks for all of your input!

>

> Hi Doc,

>

> Your disability insurance carrier is trying to reduce the amount of payment that they are responsible for. You will still receive the same amount but they will reduce their portion according to the amount social security sends you each month. Somewhere in the fine print of your plan it will say something about this option. That being said I would not corporate at all! Make them do all the work and drag your feet because this will lower your lifetime benefit from social security.

>

> Good luck and hang in there

>

>

> Social security Disability help

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Friends,

>

> Every few months I get a new person handling my private disability.

> The latest wants me to apply for social security disability

>

> First, I wonder what is the motivation? To save my private group

> insurance some money I suspect which is fair, but sorry, I am deeply

> suspicious of insurance companies and wonder if they are up to more.

> To their credit, they are willing to help me with the forms.

>

> Second, I seem to recall that CLL, now more than a year after a

> transplant, is a no-go for federal disability.

>

> Any advise or experience is welcome.

>

> I will try to share soon my news from Israel and Stanford, but my

> energy has been low.

>

> Thanks

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Employers have the right to set their own guidelines regarding disability

payments and offsets. My employer paid six months of short term disability with

full pay. For long term disability, I collect 50% pay which is offset by my

social security disability payment. The hospital arranged for someone from SS to

come to the hospital room of patients that were interested in applying. I was

surprised when I found out my daughter qualified for a benefit as long as I was

receiving one even though we have a good income between my husband and self.

The SSDI approval process went smooth and it took about three weeks for

approval. From what I understand you must be off work for at least five months

before SSDI payments kick in. Good luck.

dx CLL 5/2004. Treatments Chlorambucil+ Rituxan, FCR, R-BEAM chemo for reduced

inntisty related donor allo SCT on 9-9-09. 6 months post transplant and doing

well with very minimal skin GVHD. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cindydrost

-

[Guest guest]

Dear ,I disagree with and cite the following from:SSA Publication No. 05-10018, December 2008, ICN 454500Disability payments from private sources, such as private pension or insurance benefits, do not affect your Social Security disability benefits. However, workers’ compensation and other public disability benefits may reduce your Social Security benefits.Workers’ compensation benefits are paid to a worker because of a job-related injury or illness. They may be paid by federal or state workers’ compensation agencies, employers or by insurance companies on behalf of employers.I collected my full SSD benefits and a full private disability I'd been paying into but if I'd chosen to retire with a State Disability as well as applying for SSD, they would have applied a formula that would have reduced total benefits but not below a certain amount that I think was based either on my earnings or my pension -- I'm not sure. is also saying that because you are so young you don't want to start collecting any type of SS too early and that sounds truer. I retired at age 60 and began collecting SSD at that point but I was single and self-supporting ... this is something you should discuss with an SS attorney or with a qualified accountant.I'm addressing this to the group only because I think it's general information but if we continue, I'll post to you off list.Best -- Ellen Diamond On Mar 16, 2010, at 10:02 AM, skiserdds@... wrote:

Hi Doc,Your disability insurance carrier is trying to reduce the amount of payment that they are responsible for. You will still receive the same amount but they will reduce their portion according to the amount social security sends you each month. Somewhere in the fine print of your plan it will say something about this option. That being said I would not corporate at all! Make them do all the work and drag your feet because this will lower your lifetime benefit from social security. Good luck and hang in there Social security Disability help.

[Guest guest]

Dear -

is correct, and so is Ellen. Private disability insurance, group or

individual, does not reduce Social Security disability benefits. But the reverse

is not true. Most group disability policies include Social Security disability

offsets. These policies require a beneficiary to apply for Social Security

disability, and the Social Security benefit goes to the insurer as an offset of

the benefit paid to the insured. This is not always cost-neutral to the

beneficiary, in this case you, because Social Security disability benefits are

taxable if income is above a fairly low threshold, and private disability

benefits are not taxed at all if the premiums were paid on an after-tax basis.

Put another way, you get the tax bill, and the insurer gets the Social Security

benefit.

Individual disability insurance policies generally don't include a Social

Security disability benefit offset, they often have a shorter elimination

(waiting) period for eligibility, and they pay off more easily than Social

Security or private group policies. But there is a reason. Premiums for these

policies are thousands of dollars per year. Premiums for group policies, often

paid by employers, are a few hundred dollars per year per person.

Your insurer will probably pay for a Social Security disability lawyer if your

Social Security disability benefit appeal reaches the administrative law judge

appeal level (third level), because it's in the insurance company's interest for

you to be awarded benefits, particularly if your disability is likely to be

permanent.

Best,

Adam

>

> >

> > Hi Doc,

> >

> > Your disability insurance carrier is trying to reduce the amount of payment

that they are responsible for. You will still receive the same amount but they

will reduce their portion according to the amount social security sends you each

month. Somewhere in the fine print of your plan it will say something about this

option. That being said I would not corporate at all! Make them do all the work

and drag your feet because this will lower your lifetime benefit from social

security.

> >

> > Good luck and hang in there

> >

> >

> > Social security Disability help

> > .

>