It’s everyone’s nightmare: something happens to you that necessitates you going on disability through your insurer, then you get fired from your job and you are no longer health insured. What’s going to happen to you? Will you still be able to get long-term disability benefits? Can your employer even do this?
First let’s get the question of losing the job out of the way. Disability insurance and benefits by themselves don’t come with any kind of job protection. In fact, often someone will need to prove that they aren’t able to work in order to get disability benefits. That being said, if you believe you’ve been wrongfully terminated due to your disability, you’ll want to seek help from someone who understands the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Those two laws detail when an employer can and can’t fire someone with a disability.
Now back to the question of whether you should still qualify for disability insurance even if your insurance was through your job and you lost that job. Short answer: yes.
What Happens to Long-Term Disability if You Lose Your Job
If you lose your job, the impact on your long-term disability benefits depends on the specific terms of your policy and the reasons for job loss. If the disability is the cause of the job loss, long-term disability benefits may continue. Your disability coverage may be terminated if you lose your job if the policy is linked to your employment.
In order to understand how job loss affects your long-term disability policy, you should review the terms of your policy and contact your provider. Upon termination of employment, some policies may offer the option to continue coverage independently or convert to an individual policy, while others may cease coverage. Getting clarification from your insurance provider and consulting with a legal or insurance professional can help you navigate the specific details of your case.
For a free legal consultation, call 800-562-9830
You Had Insurance When the Disability Occurred
Many people insured through their jobs end up starting with short term disability and “graduating” to long term disability if the issue continues and keeps them from working. Questions arise, however, when people are fired or laid off before moving onto long term disability. Will their benefits end? As long as your disability onset date happened before your insurance ended, the insurer is legally required to cover you. It doesn’t even matter if you wait to file your claim until after the policy ends – as long as the onset date happens while you’re still insured, you can potentially get benefits.
You Meet the Requirements for Getting Disability
Of course, it’s not quite that simple. Every insurance plan has specific disability requirements that you have to meet beyond having something bad happen to you while you’re under a policy. You might have had to be working a certain number of hours before the disability occurred to qualify, or have specific tests done to prove your condition.
What it all boils down to, though, is that your coverage can’t be terminated just because you no longer work for the company that was offering it to you. If someone has something happen to them while an insurance policy is active, disability laws stipulate that the insurer is legally obligated to look at that claim. Know your rights: download and read our free long term disability eBook and check our blogs weekly for more information regarding your Long Term Disability Insurance rights!
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