If an individual is receiving long term disability insurance benefits from a plan provided through employment, an award of social security disability benefits often results in a dollar for dollar reduction of LTD benefits. This does not occur as frequently with long term disability plans directly purchased by an individual who has control over the type of insurance purchased. Generally, it is much easier to obtain long term disability benefits than social security disability benefits because of different definitions of disability applied to the two programs. It is common that during the first two years of disability the administrator of an LTD plan only requires proof that a disabled person cannot perform the usual and customary duties of their “own occupation,” the job being performed at the time disability began. After two years the standard of changes to an “any occupation” standard, that is very similar to what must be shown for disability in an SSD claim.
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