The old saying "Saving for a Rainy Day" can hold very true in cases of disability.

Many employers offer what is known as "Cafeteria Plans" of Insurance and Retirement Benefits to their employees by allowing an employee to pick and choose from a variety of insurance and retirement plans available at the workplace, and then the employer deducts the premiums on a per paycheck basis before taxes.

This can have more benefits than just the income tax benefits of paying for your plans with pre-tax dollars rather than post-tax dollars.

If you have Short and Long Term Disability Insurance available through your workplace, you should take a serious look into them. There are some insurers these days that even offer a return of premium if you retire without having a claim for disability coverage.

Of the persons I have represented so far in disability cases, there have been a few who took advantage of workplace disability insurance policies and they were much better off during their wait to be approved than those who didn't have any disability insurance.

Usually, disability insurance plans will pay a stipulated percentage of your payroll salary if you become disabled. The standard is 60% but there are plans that will pay higher percentages as well as there being plans that pay lower percentages of your normal workplace income. Additionally, insurers offer a variety of time elements for starting to receive benefits, from 1 week to around a month, generally, from the date of your onset of your disability.

Short term disability insurance plans usually offer other options such as a maximum time for disability benefits, such as 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years, with 3 years being pretty much standard in the industry. Since a Social Security Disability claim could very well take up to 3 years to get approved, I suggest that you look into at least Short Term plans that will pay benefits from about 1 week into your disability through 3 years, so that it will be of great help during the Social Security Disability application process.

Remember that, even if you filed a claim for disability with Social security and you were accepted in the initial application level, Social Security will not pay benefits for the first 5 months of your disability. Having a short-term plan that will start off with, like day 7 of your disability, will help you keep your head above the financial waters during those first 5 months, and until you get approved.

Long Term Disability plans usually cover the insured throughout the entire lifetime of the disability, but the plan can also stipulate the number of years of benefits (i.e. 10 years or any other specified number of years or months). Contrary to popular belief, the amount of Social Security benefits you receive is not affected by the amount you receive through your disability insurance benefits. Private insurance benefits would only affect the SSI benefits, if any, that you may receive.

Another card up your sleeve which you might wish to consider in case of disability is an IRA. If you have a qualifying disabling condition or illness, you can withdraw some or all of your IRA funds without having to pay a penalty for early withdrawal. If you have a traditional IRA, you will still have to report it and pay taxes on the amount you have taken out, but there wouldn't be any penalties attached. If you have a Roth plan, you already paid the taxes on that, so you would not have to pay taxes nor penalties on the amount you have withdrawn. You may wish to talk with your tax professional about this.

If you have questions or need help with a Social security issue and don't know who to turn to, feel free to contact me by clicking on the "Contact" link on my website:

www.ssabenefit.com

or you can call me at the number listed on my website.

Capt. Leonardo Ortiz (USMM)