May is Disability Awareness Month

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 67% or 100 million American workers don’t have long term disability insurance through their employers, leaving them – and their paychecks – vulnerable.  Workers risk severe financial hardship without basic life and disability insurance. 

There are many misconceptions that drive lack of coverage.  The majority of wage earners believe they have only a 2 percent or less chance of being disabled for three months or more during their working careers.1 However, the actual odds of a worker being disabled for at least six months is 33 percent.2

One reason for this discrepancy could be what workers think causes a disability,” Koll says.  “Lifelong ailments aren’t the main cause of disabilities.  The vast majorities – 91 percent – are caused by common illnesses or health conditions such as cancer, childbirth or heart attack.3 That means many disabilities aren’t covered by workers’ compensation.”

Most workers don’t have the financial resources to sustain a hit like a disability or death, which removes your ability to maintain your family’s current standard of living.  61 percent of American workers live paycheck to paycheck.4  In a recent Colonial Life survey, 65 percent of employers said they didn’t think their employees would be able to maintain their current standard living if they were unable to work for two or three months because of an illness or accident.5

So what’s holding people back from buying?  Not all employers offer these benefits to their employees.  This is where you come in.  You as the employer can play a key role in providing access to this protection and helping your employees understand the need for coverage.  Employers can offer voluntary life and disability insurance.  Voluntary insurance plans allow employers to offer cost-effective protection at little or no direct cost to the business. 

Most carriers will handle the enrollment from beginning to end.  That means providing you with the marketing materials, meeting with the employees as a group or one-on-one and when enrollment is completed they provide you with a report of the employees that purchased a benefit and the deduction amount based on the payroll frequency.  So, what’s holding you back now? 

If you would like more information about offering voluntary life and disability insurance or to obtain a quote, please call us at (508) 753-7233 or 1-800-649-6655.  

    

1 Council for Disability Awareness Disability Divide proprietary research, March 2010.

2 Social Security Administration Fact Sheet, March 18, 2011.

3 Council for Disability Awareness, “The Disability Guide, CDA 2010 Consumer Disability Awareness         Survey,”March 2010.

4 CareerBuilder.com survey, April 2011.

5 Colonial Life insurance and disability insurance survey, October 2011.