Following is a scenario – sometimes welcome – for an individual receiving disability insurance benefits while suffering from a long-term disabling illness or injury.
To wit: You are unquestionably compromised to a degree, that the ability to live life as was customary prior to the onset of your debilitating condition is impossible, but you don’t want to give in to helplessness. Your LTD status is spot on, but you don’t feel that it precludes you entirely from participating in some meaningful life activities so you try your best to focus on what you can do and not what your disability-linked limitations are. Legions of people receiving disability benefits through an employer’s plan under the Federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) logically turn their attention to volunteer possibilities.
Volunteering opportunities are many and diverse, and immersion at a limited level into volunteering activities is often uplifting and self-affirming for disabled individuals.
Unfortunately, it can also prove problematic. In fact, insurers often question volunteerism to any degree, charging that it is inconsistent with the definition of disability.
Volunteer-linked insurance reprisals are underscored on the website of an authoritative pro-claimant national legal source on LTD benefits and challenges. That topical overview stresses that, even in an instance of very limited engagement (say just a few hours a week), “an insurer may terminate your benefits, reasoning that you have demonstrated the ability to work.”
That makes for a slippery slope in some instances, and disabled persons seeking to enrich their life through volunteer work might logically have some questions and concerns before seeking to do so.
They can reach out for help and guidance to a proven and empathetic disability law legal team.