Short Term Disability Benefits

Disability benefits, i.e. the insurance benefits paid in case of disability, are broadly categorized into two types - short term disability benefits, entitled for an individual suffering from some illness or injury which doesn't allow him to work for a temporary period, and long term disability benefits entitled for an individual suffering from any such problem for a relatively longer period, usually a year or more.

Short Term Disability Program

While the actual definition of short term disability (STD) varies from one corporate entity to another, it generally revolves around the concept of paying a part of the person's salary, when he/she is out with some illness or injury which is not related to work. The medical conditions which can hamper an individual's ability to work need not be restricted to physical disabilities only. Even psychological conditions amount to disabilities, and therefore are included in this program. An employee can only avail these benefits when his/her sick leaves are over, and only for a stipulated period. If the medical condition prevails even after the stipulated period is over, the employee is entitled for long term disability benefits.

In some firms, an employee can avail these benefits for any medical condition which keeps him/her out of work for a maximum period of 180 days. In other companies, however, these benefits can be availed for a maximum period of 52 weeks, which amounts to 364 days or a year. On completion of this period, the employee has the option of availing long term disability benefits, the rules of which are slightly different. Short term disability insurance can either be employer paid insurance or employee paid insurance, with the former option prevailing in most of the cases.

Short Term Disability Benefits

There do exist some stipulations on the basis of which a person can be entitled for short term disability insurance benefits. In most of the cases, it is clearly mentioned in the contract that the employee has to be in service for a specific period, ideally more than a year, to be entitled for this insurance program. Similarly, he should be a full-time employee clocking the minimum required hours at the workplace every week. Some employers also add the stipulation that the employee has to avail all the sick leaves entitled to him/her before availing the benefits that he/she is entitled for.

The actual amount that a person is entitled to receive under the short term disability program varies from one company to another. While most of the companies pay around 50-75 percent of the actual salary for a stipulated period, some companies even pay the entire amount. This, by and large, depends on the period for which the said employee has worked in this company. While a company may pay 70 percent of the actual amount to an employee who has just completed two years, another employee who has completed 5 years with the company may be paid the entire 100 percent salary. There also exist some companies which follow an altogether different policy of paying 100 percent of the salary amount for the first four weeks, and 70 percent thereafter.

You also need to make sure that the option of availing long term disability benefits is in place for you. This can be of immense help when the illness or injury that you are suffering from takes much more time to recover than expected. Lastly, working in some big company is a definite advantage in itself as your short term disability claims are processed by the company - with you being only required to submit your medical report.