BEF
Sure wish you best of luck with the LTD and SS.
Went thru that with wife. Pretty much self education, no help offered anywhere unless you pay an attorney.
We knew my wife would never return to work while on STD.
Applied for Medical, but not eligible for SS due to work years as Fed employee, short 2 quarters. Even had to submit SS info to LTD insurer. So as the calendar runs, STD runs it’s course, wife gets out of hospital, employee med plan dies, Medical kicks in, LTD kicks in. All with lots of back and forth between me and whomever.
So the next year, wife gets one of those SS notices that tells you about future benefits. This time she qualifies for SS as her STD payments qualified for the 2 quarters.
So we apply for SS Disability which is denied. I learn this is near automatic, most use an attorney to appeal. Funny thing is the attorney submits nothing different that beneficiary submits so I just refiled myself. A drawn out process that tells you up front that when approved there will be a lump sum back payment. Of course this is what an attorney gets 40% of for doing nothing. SS Disability included medical eval by some appointed Dr. Don’t think he particularly liked me as we showed up with my foot high box of med records and xrays. Of course I was very observant of the physical tests. Made it a point to be cordial and polite, but when wife performed a task differently than an uninjured person and he didn’t take note, I made sure he did, even if I had to explain what she did that was different. I will admit, I was coached by wifes attorney. He and I got along great.
Eventually SS was approved and came with a nice lump sum check and eligibility letter. Found out that letter gets used over and over, so safe guard it.
I dutifully faxed all this new SS info to the LTD insurer. No response, but about year and half later Wife gets letter from a different person at LTD insurer basically accusing her of fraudulently over collecting due to her SS payments and demanding back payment. Of course I fired off a response with copies of the faxed documents stating that any error was on their part as they were properly and completely informed in timely manner.
After some negotiation we negotiated a settlement where they withheld about a year’s worth and then resumed payment minus the SS amount. That SS deduction remained constant.
This year, wife aged out. Got a letter from SS notifying her of the conversion. Amount didn’t change. Smooth. Letter from LTD insurer of termination about same time as last check.
I do tease my wife that she must not be disabled anymore.
As I said, GOOD LUCK. and patience.
