Originally Posted by
gloopy
DPMA seems like a great system over all, although I'm a little bit miffed that they raised the dues specifically because there were exponentially more age 60-65 claims even though they got to pay into it at age 60 actuarial rates the whole time. So now that one group uses it on the way out and the entire pilot group has to may more for their entire careers. They needed to raise the dues proportionate for that one time group and then slowly raise them on everyone as the actuarials caught up.
Other than that its a good system, although I'd like to see more options for a LTD bridge plan than what ALPA offers. Something to bring the long term total up to at least 2/3, and it should be ALV or something like that. You shouldn't be rewarded or punished for a decade or two just because you picked up or dropped some trips for 6 months or a year leading up to a LTD event. That doesn't make any sense to calculate it that way.
I was under the impression that when we merged with NW we allowed them to join DPMA. So essentially 4500 new bodies of all ages had instant disability benifits with out ever paying in while they were young and healthy. This was the primary cause of the rate increase. I heard this from a capt that has some affiliation with administering the DPMA program, so it is purely second had info.