Can Disability Insurers Reduce Benefits Based on a Spouse’s Income?

The universal answer for this question is No. In almost every short term or long term disability insurance policy the only money a carrier can use to offset the claimant’s disability insurance benefits is money paid to the claimant or the claimant’s children as a result of the claimant’s disability. An example of a classic offset is SSDI payments to the claimant or SSDI payments to claimants children as a result of the claimant’s disability.

Income to earned by a spouse that has nothing to do with your disability is irrelevant and we have never seen a spouse’s income offset a spouse’s disability benefit. There have been cases where a claimant and the spouse own shares in a company and the claimant is still disabled. The income distributed to the disabled claimant could be considered an offset.