Allsup & LTD collecting overpayment
 

Okay just got a letter today from my LTD provider regarding overpayment of my LTD benefits since I was approved for SSDI. Forgive me my logical sense has left me (medication)and this question may sound very easy and straight forward.

fact
1. Told if I used their attorney I would not have to pay for attorney fees so I did their attorney. (Allsup)

Breakdown of overpayment

monthly SSDI amount awarded back to 2/09 - $1444
LTD amount paid to me monthly began 2/09 -$2916
LTD amount that should have been paid monthly -$1472

Amount of overpayment received from SSA - $23,104. Letter indicates they are due this exact amount then gives breakdown as follows:
credit for attorney fee of $5350 leaving
net due to LTD provider $17,000.

Do I just send LTD provider their $17,000 and then they pay Allsup? Which is confusing because then that goes against the "I will not have to pay the attorney fees" however if I just give them $17k I will be ahead $6k and they will only actual receive around $12k roughly??

Allsup is saying I am suppose to send them the money first then pay my LTD provider.

Also I have pending backpay for my children. Can my LTD provider then send another letter asking for their backpay as well?

Cant wait to call my LTD provider on Monday but until then just curious is anyone has gone through this??

Thanks

Who is Allsup? What is their relationship to your LTD carrier? i responded to your PM but never did quite follow this . . .

Allsup is SSA advocate. They were recommended to me by my LTD provider. I was told if I used them I would not have to pay their fee.

Maybe they were referring to the fact the normally, you do not actually pay the lawyer fee directly, it comes out of your ssdi backpay or maybe they meant the LTD carrier pays it because it is worth it to them to get you off LTD and onto SSDI

Sorry, I don't have any experience with paying back LTD and how that all works

You did mean breakdown of UNDERpayment, not OVERpayment, right?

You gotta read your LTD contract.

I was reimbursed attorney fees thru my LTD carrier. It was subtracted from the overpayment.

Receiving SSDI, knowing who pays for what, and private long-term disability insurance (LTD) can get a little confusing when combined. It is common for LTD plans to require that you apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) if it’s likely that you are permanently disabled. If you do qualify for SSDI, the insurance company reduces the amount of your monthly LTD benefit by the amount of your monthly SSDI check. They call this an “offset” and having this provision in your group LTD plan helps keep the cost of your LTD benefit down for you and your employer.

The good news is that your insurance carrier keeps paying you the full LTD amount every month while you can’t work and are waiting to be approved for SSDI (which can take years these days). And often the LTD insurer will pay the fee for a SSDI representative to help you through the SSDI process, or reimburse you for this expense. (If you don’t get reimbursed, the fee could be tax deductible on your federal tax return.) But the process can get complicated. If you waited a long time to get SSDI, you get a retroactive SSDI payment from the government, paying you back to when you first qualified for the SSDI benefit. That means you were getting a full (without an offset) LTD payment, plus SSDI for that time period. LTD plans usually require you to return this overpayment, and usually, the easiest way for you to do this is to reimburse them using your retroactive SSDI benefit. Some SSDI representatives assist you with this by coordinating the reimbursement for you.

It may not seem that way at first, but you didn’t lose any money in this process. Going forward, you will receive all of the money that you are supposed to under your private and public disability plans, it’s just now coming from two sources (LTD and SSDI) instead of one (LTD). LTD plans are designed to work with SSDI benefits. Remember that both you and your employer contributed FICA taxes toward the SSDI program. Also, it’s important to note that if you do not reimburse your LTD plan, your LTD benefits may be negatively affected. All of this is contingent upon your individual plan of course.

Regards,
Mike Stein

What is an LTD provider?

LTD is Long Term Disability

I think you can get it through most insurance companies - many employers have it or an option to get it, in their benefits package.

I see..thank you JoMar!!!

the totally unfair part about most ltd's that Allsup fails to mention is that they also take your childrens backpay so in effect you do lose money in the process.

ELA,

If the LTD already paid you during that time period, they are just taking back what you owe them for overpayment.

Your kids would only receive backpay for the period if you weren't already paid for it.

Echoes what do you mean they can take children's backpay. I sent my Long Term Disability the money the stated in the letter. Are you saying if I get my children's back pay that they can now come back again and demand more money in addition to what I just sent them?
I wrote on the certified check "payment in full".

there have been people on here who have had part or all of their childrens backpay taken by the ltd also. do a search and you will see what i am talking about.

Unfortunately, Echoes is correct. I used to work in Employee Benefits and this was always an issue that employees/dependents were not aware of.

Here is just something I found in an article that may help explain it better than I can:

Lately the question of whether a long-term disability carrier can offset Social Security payments to a dependent has been a popular one. Most claimant's are aware that their LTD plans offset Social Security benefits awarded to the disabled individual, but most plans also offset the SSD benefits paid to the dependents or spouse of the disabled individual as well, if those benefits result from the individual's disability. As always it is important to read your plan documents carefully. The only time an LTD carrier can offset the Social Security benefit paid to a spouse or dependent is when that payment derives directly from the claimant's status as a disabled person.

Based on the numbers you posted, your LTD carrier will receive your SSD payment AND the dependent portion then they will continue to pay your monthly benefit. Bottom line, you will continue to receive your LTD payment of $2,916. If the LTD benefit were not in place, you would only receive the SSD payment of $1,444 plus the dependent portion (which I believe is 1/2 of your benefit) of $722 for a total of $2,166.

Hopefully, your policy doesn't have this verbiage in it but I would rather give you the heads up of what is in 90% of the LTD policies out there so you know ahead of time.

thanks for the heads up Hugg I only have the summary portion and there is no reference to dependents but I bet they will take it. I am up for review from my LTD provider for "any occupation" on 2/3/11 hopefully I will be approved

i am so confused.
 

i was just informed by metlife that i needed to fax in my ssdi acceptance letter to determine my overpayment. i'm getting 1069.00 from ssdi, metlife gave me 1210.00 a month. went on disabilty in jan of 2010. how do they figure out the overpayment amount? i'm afraid i'm not going to be able to repay them. what could happen if they dont get paid? someone please help.

You will get to keep 141 dollars per month that you received from Metlife(from the overpayment) and they will still owe you 141 a month since your SSDI pay is lesser than the LTD. Did you spend your backpay? They could withhold the 141 until they are paid in full. I'm on LTD also and need to do a yearly medical review with them to keep my benefits(100 per month). You will owe them for every month that you were paid backpay from SSDI.

hmm I originally was getting 2916 from Metlife then awarded 1444 from SSDI. The overpayment was the difference between the two
2916 - 1444 = 1472 what metlife should have been paying me they took that amount and multiplied times the number of months they paid me to equal the amount that SHOULD have been paid then subtract from the ACTUAL amount that was paid. Pretty much they received my entire lump sum back minus the attorney fee of 5300 (fee for using their attorney).
Second issue, my children was approved for children benefits which caused another overpayment. ..