Originally Posted by
Qotsaautopilot
This is not the interpretation I got straight from the R&I committee.
LTD pays for 24 months (after a 90 day waiting period. Hope you have 216 hours in your sick bank) and the only way you can keep getting the benefit payment after 24 months is if you can be defined by Social Security Administration as disabled. There are plenty of situations where you lose your medical but the SSA won't define you as disabled. No medical and bye bye LTD at 24months.
MAX pay is $5000 for FOs and $10000 for CAs if they participate in the buy up. If on the rare chance you can get defined by the SSA as disabled at the 24 month mark to keep getting paid they will reduce your benefit by the amount you get from social security.
Plain and simple: the plan needs to have a higher benefit amount. Qualifying needs to be based on not holding a first class medical. The only way for it to stop paying you is you get your first class back or you turn 65 years old.
Any contract that does not have this I will vote no to. It does not matter what the rest of the contract says if you don't have a medical and cannot work. Young or old you can lose your medical at your next exam without warning. Are we willing to vote for a contract that doesn't insure a multimillion dollar career? I'm not!
As someone that's also had the displeasure of being on LTD for a year. This about sums it up!
Originally Posted by
MATEN308
This is about right. In my case though I didn't see the first payment till about the 5 1/2 month mark. At 90 days you are eligible for LTD, but the gathering of info from doctors will push your first payment out some time. They back pay you from the eligibility date. Your first 2 payments have SS tax and federal taken out. After that you are given the option for full payment and be responsible for your own tax payments. Pay is 60% of your monthly. My case as an FO put my pay without tax removed at about $3000.00 a month. Since the company pays our policies it is considered taxable income. The $5000 and $10000 numbers are misleading due to you will receive 60% of that for your pay, hence my payment of $3000.00. Basically plan on a new career with this policy.
Forgot to add the company pays your insurance premium for 9 months, after that you are given the option of cobra or find your own policy. Cobra for me only with our mid-tier plan came in at about $700 a month for health only so keep that in mind also!
This is also very accurate! Although eligible for LTD at 90 days, Principal does their very best to not pay you. It's a never-ending paper-chase with them. They're always looking for ways to not pay you, or reduce the amount they have to pay. It's a joke!
I never saw a nickel from them until the 6 month mark. Then, because I was also eligible for state disability (which we're forced to pay for ourselves), Principal reduced my benefits because of it.
So I had the pleasure of paying the state so Principal could benefit. That was really nice of me...glad I could help that major money-making corporation out in MY TIME OF NEED! Go F@&$ yourself, Principal.
That's outstanding and a perfect example of how jacked up our insurance industry in America is.