Can I earn money while collecting long-term disability benefits?

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses if a claimant is able to earn income while receiving long term disability benefits.

Disability claimants often ask me if they can earn money through some other method besides just collecting their long-term disability benefits. The answer to this question really depends on the language in your policy. If you have an own occupation definition of disability, then the likelihood is that you could work in some type of different occupation and earn money. However, if you don’t have an own occupation definition of disability, the probability is that if you earned any kind of money in some other profession, that any money you earn would be offset from your disability benefit payment.

So if you were earning $3,000 a month in a long-term disability benefit payment and you had some other occupation that paid you $1,500 a month, for example, the likelihood is that the disability carrier may claim an offset of $1,500, which would leave you with $1,500 left of your monthly benefit. So if you have specific questions about your policy and whether you can work and continue to collect your disability benefits, go ahead and give us a call and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.