Long Term Disability 101

Long term disability is like most insurance:  you rarely think about it until YOU actually need it!  In order to qualify for LTD, you must be under the regular care of a physician and be considered "fully disabled" - this means that you are wholly and continuously disabled due to illness or bodily injury and, as a result, you are not physically or mentally fit to perform the essential duties of teaching.

Some quick facts about LTD:

• If you are actively at work, you MUST have LTD coverage - only those on a leave of absence are permitted to waive their LTD coverage;
  
• You pay 1.153% of your annual salary for LTD coverage;
• Your LTD premiums are deducted on the second pay of each month;
• You pay ALL of the premiums for your LTD, which means that should you be paid a disability benefit, it will not be taxable;
• The LTD benefit amount is 60% of your monthly earnings in effect at the date your benefit payments commenced, up to a maximum of $5000 per month, and paid for all 12 months of the year;
• While on LTD, your required contribution to the Teachers' Pension Plan will be deducted from your monthly benefits and paid through the DDSB;
• The qualifying period is 180 days OR expiration of your sick leave credits, whichever is later;
• The new cost of living allowance will provide a 2% increase per year for new claims, after the first 12 months of benefits.  This means that if your salary was $70,000., you would make $42,000 per year as your disability benefit ($70,000 x 60%).  After 5 years on LTD, the cost of living allowance would have increased your benefit to $45,462.  After 10 years on LTD, your benefit would be $50,193.   While not everyone who is on LTD will have a claim lasting 5 or 10 years, the reality is that we do have members who have been on LTD for over 25 years, and others in the range of 10 or 15 years.  You can imagine the financial difficulty this would create if there were no cost of living increase for such a long length of time.