Hi - New here as well..

Hus is going thru same situation, but diff conditions then your husband. His employer just put him on LTD and they will hold his job until June this year.

I believe if I am understanding all of this with LTD and SSDI is this:

LTD wants you to qualify asap for SSDI so they only have to make up the difference and they are not paying full amount. It is mandatory via our LTD carrier that hus applies for SSDI. They will continue to review over next 24mos and can at any time deny him LTD. So we thought it best to just get it done and go from there vs. waiting until they review him again every few months. They also said they will provide assistance should we apply and get denied free of charge. Of course, this comes as a credit should the claim go on for years and would involve a lumpsum back pay amount. LTD requires that we pay them back out of any lump sum from SSDI. So keep that in mind as far as deciding when to file a claim with SSDI and get the ball rolling.

As I have been reading, SSDI can take years to get approved....some are lucky and get approved in short time, but not the norm....