For all who know so much more about the "system" than i do.
Question- When employer says they pay 70% of your "base salary" minus any social security, is it correct that they include ALL social security payments awarded to my total family and not just me? That is my wife gets part of the award for my disability made out solely to her with an amount for her and the children included. This is not a part of "my" paycheck, i have no control over it. It is like my wife is given money for my children as if I wouldn't spend it on them myself (and i give them every cent anyway). She can spend it on anything she wants. Meanwhile , i get this amount in reduced long term pay from my company. Is this true and correct? It sounds to me like an automatic garnishment of wages, just beacuse i happen to be married with children cs

are you on workman's comp? and social security? I know there is an offset on that. I settled my wc before I applied for ss

no workmans comp, just ssdi and company's private plan. They say that they pay 70% of your base salary minus any ss benefits. Since ssdi pays part of the benefits directly to my wife and kids for their loss of me, it doesn't make sense that they take that out of my wage. It seems like some kind of garnisment penalty, even though i stress that all my money goes to them anyway. What i'm geting at is should my employer not take off the money that ssdi gives to my wife and kids because it is a part of ssdi's package for me becoming disabled. It seems like a penalty towards me, because i got sick. I think that the company should be paying me the promised 70% of my base wage and the "extra" that ssdi pays to my wife and kids should be looked at as helping to make up the 30% (actually 50% when bonus is considered) that i lost from becoming disabled. Is this clear, now? cs

Your children should get their own amount. It is for their welfare just like child support. It is to care for your kids. My aunt gets ssd and her boys did til they were 18.

I do understand now. I don't agree with companies doing that but that is just how they do it. it is considered an offset. stupid huh? after all you did pay into it.

My LTD works the same way, the insurance carrier offsets (deducts) any funds paid by social security disability regardless of whom the recipient is.
Sadly, when dealing with employer provided LTD group coverage, it's quite standard these days.
Even though the children's benefits are to be used for the support of the children, they still count it as total family income and reduce what they pay.

When your children reach the age of no longer being eligible to collect SSD benefits off your record, your LTD carrier would then be responsible to increase the amount that they had been previously offsetting. (Assuming if you are still disabled at that time)

My LTD works the same way, the insurance carrier offsets (deducts) any funds paid by social security disability regardless of whom the recipient is.
Sadly, when dealing with employer provided LTD group coverage, it's quite standard these days.
Even though the children's benefits are to be used for the support of the children, they still count it as total family income and reduce what they pay.

When your children reach the age of no longer being eligible to collect SSD benefits off your record, your LTD carrier would then be responsible to increase the amount that they had previously offsetting.

Finally somebody understands!!
When I phoned SS about this they were rude to me, like I was trying to take and keep ALL the ssdi payments from them to me, like I had some kind of a problem giving money to my wife and children. No explaining could get them to get it, I felt humiliated, like I was some kind of greedy father who would see his children starve.
For those of you who STILL don't get it, all I was asking is that if you are going to pay ME, MY SSDI benefits, do it as if I was working, just pay me whatever to make up 70% of my wage and I'll take it from there, just like i used to when i was working. I mean GOBZ, they get it all anyway, sheeesh.
STill don't get it?
They said that they would pay ME 70% of what I earned, MINUS what SSDI PAYED ME. So because my wife and kids get a cheque from SS (I assume because I paid for all these years thinking it would be a benefit that because I have a wife and kids, that they would get something till they are 18, or in my wifes' case till I die or reach retirement, as a means of offsetting the fact that NOW I DON'T HAVE NEARLY ENOUGH MONEY FOR THEM TOO. IN other words, if i was single, no kids , i'd get 70% of my wage paid to me. BUT because I have kids, it's like my company gets away with paying me what amounts to LESS THAN 70% of my income , because cheques go to my wife and kids in THEIR names. What is missing is essentially a "penalty" for having a wife and kids, what woulld be a little extra for them, payed by SS, is really, just taken from ME, so their is no EXTRA for them. We ALL have to live on a much reduced wage because I got chronically, terminally ill.
Don't get me wrong; I'm damn glad we aren't living under a bridge, and thank my lucky stars for ssdi, I just think it stinks that what would be "welfare for the dependants of the profoundly ill and dying" is REALLY "welfare for the corporations". Does this make sense to everybody now?
I would absolutely LOVE to be able to work my job that i spent 20 years and over $200,000 to obtain, I would be on easy street (or is it "boardwalk" in monopoly) but because I CAN'T Work, through no fault of my own (and might i add, at a "fortune 500 company" in the richest and most powerful nation on earth), then both the government and my company, are giving me, personally, less than half (about 43%, when you take off the bonus and the cheques to my wife and kids) of what I would have been making working, even though, i was led to believe that I was "guaranteed", 70% of my "income" through all the taxes and deductions to my previous income.
NOw I know that there are a lot of people out there who didn't go through a generation of hell at school, or weren't "on the books" when they got fried (and I feel especially bad for some of our military guys, who are actually getting "less than nothing", nevermind 45%, for putting their lives on the line and are now in even worse physical shape than I'm in); But just remember, I'm not whining, one doesn't need a lot of money to live happily, I' just really saying that sometimes it's better to just die than get seriously ill and unable to work. At least my family would be wallowing high on the hog from my life insurance money, rather than worrying about how to pay for everything that one NEEDS in life, not WANTS, NEEDS. I have sympathy for ALL of yOU on SSDI. So do you get my message now?

Trust me, I can totally relate to every single thought that you typed out, so much that it felt like I was actually typing the words right along with you.
I would also give anything to be able to go back to living the life I once knew, dealing with becoming disabled and the feelings/life adjustments that go along with facing that reality, is the hardest challenge I've ever faced.

The whole LTD dependent offset issue plain sucks in my book
If it helps any, please know that there are people out there (lawyers as well as other advocacy groups) that are trying very hard to put an end to such a questionable practice as offsetting dependent benefits.

I can understand LTD offsetting our own SSD benefits so we don't exceed the percentage as per what our LTD contracts state, but factoring in and offsetting other family member dependents benefits is pushing things way to far

Even though the LTD carrier has to increase their portion of benefits once the dependents age out from collecting SSD off our records, normally things only get harder dealing with the LTD carrier from that point on.
When LTD is advised that they need to increase what they've been paying due to no longer being able to offset childrens benefits, they get very creative in all of a sudden denying the whole claim
For some people it's a smooth process, and others like myself it's not

I wish I knew long ago exactly how group LTD works, if I did I would've purchased my own private disability plan which normally doesn't offset dependents benefits, it would have saved me a lot of headaches

Hang in there as I'm trying to do. I guess we should be fortunate that we have any LTD plan at all, many people do not, I feel bad for those people who have nothing to fall back on while awaiting the SSDI approval process.

Have a happy holiday

You know your ltd can refuse to give you benifits even if you have been aproved for ssd. I know 3 differant people having to get lawers to get theirs.