Have you been thinking you are needing long-term disability and are feeling unsure of where to start? If you currently are on short-term disability, then the next time is long-term. This typically last 2 years. It can be a huge weight lifted off your shoulder and can be nice to know you will still be able to pay your bills every single month. The courts will be a little bit pickier however when it comes to getting your long-term disability benefits. Keep reading as we talk about how you can get them, how to avoid having issues along the way, and what you should do if long term disability denied. Trust us when we say it can get complicated, but we are here to break it down for you completely.
The first thing that we want to discuss is what happens with long term disability. The good news is that you don’t need to worry about your bills and your job quite as much. During this time, you can focus on getting better. You can focus on recovering your injury so that you continue progressing so that you can conquer any goal you want in the future and not have an injury holding you back.
Long term disability sounds like a great thing, doesn’t it? The answer to that is yes. With that said, you need to follow all of the protocols and have everything in place in older to be accepted and start receiving payments and benefits.
One of the main reasons why people do not get accepted and the courts decline them is because they have not followed the instructions. Whether that means they meant to or not, it’s important that everything is documented so that they know you for sure are injured and they you truly are not able to work at this time.
That means that the first thing you want to do is to ensure all of your doctors visits and notes are up-to-date. You can have them fill out paperwork showing how you are not able to go into work and perform your tasks. You should show how you went to the doctors ongoing and this is continuing to be an issue that is affecting your work. You can show how physical therapy can make the issue or injury better which will better your chances of getting back to work and doing the job well. Make sure that you are not cutting corners in the paperwork. The courts will go through all of your paperwork to ensure you are being honest and everything is adding up.
Does your business have video surveillance at it? Ensure that if it is, your story is the same. The last thing that you want is to tell them you were standing for 12 hours per day and in fact you were sitting that entire time and the video shows that. Video does not lie so it is important that you have the same story as what the video will be telling the court system.
There will be a lot of paperwork that needs to be filled out. Even if you are a perfect candidate for long term disability benefits, you need to ensure everything is sent in on time. This will ensure they have time to go through it before making their decision. If you are late for any paperwork, they typically will simply decline you.
If your doctor is giving you advice and limitations on what you can be doing, make sure that you are following that. If they said you should be sitting down, make sure that the court system doesn’t see on your Facebook page a picture of you from the weekend standing or carrying heavy items around. It may seem like “well that is my time”, and although it is, you still want to be getting better, so you want to be following the doctors ordered during each part and day of your life.
If you had any pre-existing conditions, make sure that they are talked about and it is not trying to be a hidden secret. If you had an issue before and you now are trying to act as though it is new, the courts will find out and decline you. Sometimes, even if you are a good case, they do not like to see any lying because they don’t know what else you could be lying about. Make sure you disclose anything that may be of issue.
If you believe you have done everything correct and you have been declined, don’t feel as though this is the very end. There are wonderful programs and businesses out there that assist people if they have been declined long term disability. They will work with your case so that you still receive the support you need in order to get the approval you deserve. So, that means, if you have been declined, don’t give up and think that it is the end. There is still paperwork that can be followed up with. Perhaps you missed a step and didn’t realize until after you were declined, speaking with a company that specializes in this will help them show you where you went wrong and the steps you can quickly do to correct it.
We hope that this helps. Long term disability benefits can be a complicated situation. With that said, there are so many great benefits to it that will help you for many years to come. We wish you the best of luck.