Pitfalls of Accessing Long Term Disability Insurance

Can a disability attorney help me access LTD benefits?

If you’re fortunate enough to have long-term disability benefits (“LTD”), either through your employer or a private insurance policy, you might assume accessing those benefits in your time of need would be as simple is filing a few papers—sort of like a health insurance claim. Unfortunately, many people applying for LTD benefits submit incomplete applications, miss important deadlines, or fail to file specific requirements and find their claims denied.

Hiring a Long-term disability benefits attorney can make the difference between having an initial application approved or denied, or having success on appealing the denial of LTD benefits. In addition, LTD attorneys can ensure that applicants avoid other common pitfalls that would negatively impact their claim or the amount of benefits they receive.

Further, there are also many time-sensitive deadlines that are easy for laypeople to miss—especially when juggling all the other physical, emotional and financial pressures of living with a disability.

It may be advisable for a worker who becomes disabled to apply for Social Security Disability (“SSDI”) benefits prior to collecting on their long-term disability insurance benefits. In fact, some policies require that they file for SSDI first– and failure to do so can result in a denial, reduction and/or delay of LTD benefits.

Not unlike the complicated process of applying for LTD benefits, the SSDI application and appeals process is also daunting for the layperson. With approximately 2/3 of initial SSDI applications being denied and with SSDI appeals hearings experiencing a nearly two-year average delay, some disabled people are depleting their savings, losing their homes, and even dying while waiting for benefits that were initially denied. This is why many people get a disability benefits attorney on their side early on—especially since there is no out-of-pocket cost to do so.

If you or a loved one has questions regarding long-term disability insurance benefits and/or Social Security disability benefits, the disability attorneys of Arizona at Roeschke Law can help you. Contact us today for a free consultation.

With offices in Phoenix, Tucson, and Tempe, we help disabled clients throughout Arizona access the benefits they need and deserve.