Volunteering while on long-term disability insurance (LTD) benefits can offer a number of social and psychological advantages to the individual engaged in volunteering, as well as providing practical support to the surrounding community. Many people who are unable to consistently perform the activities that would be needed to maintain a full-time job nonetheless long to contribute to the world around them, and volunteer work on long-term disability benefits can open up an accessible path to making those contributions. If this describes your situation, you may have questions about the potential volunteer work impact on LTD eligibility. Understanding the terms of your particular policy’s LTD benefits and volunteering rules is essential to gauging the types and amounts of volunteer work you may be able to undertake, but an overview of some considerations that appear in many LTD plans may prove useful.
Does Volunteering Affect Disability Benefits?
Volunteer activities can jeopardize your long-term disability benefits if the activities themselves appear inconsistent with either the definition of disability under the terms of the policy or the information you submitted regarding your own condition in applying for benefits. If the volunteering activities appear to closely parallel the kinds and amounts of activity that might make it possible for you to support yourself, the insurance company may question why you are not seeking a paying job with similar requirements.
Can You Work Another Job While on Long-Term Disability?
Long-term disability work restrictions may be tighter or looser, depending on the terms of your policy. Often LTD benefits and volunteering rules are similar to the frameworks put in place for determining whether and when to adjust an individual’s long-term disability payments due to work activity, but some plans may have distinct requirements for paid vs. unpaid activities. Always check the exact terms of your particular policy to be sure, and consider getting advice from an attorney who practices disability law if you have questions.
Volunteering While on Long-Term Disability: Differences in Work Calculations Compared to Paying Jobs
One aspect of the way LTD policies tend to calibrate both work limits and benefit reductions that people often find surprising is that in many cases the basis for any adjustment is not time worked, but income earned. Volunteering obviously does not earn any income, so individuals whose long-term disability policies do include provisions for reducing benefit payments proportionate to an LTD recipient’s earnings will need to review the terms of their policies carefully to identify any provisions specific to volunteer work.
Planning for Volunteer Work Impact on LTD: Comparing Paid Work Terms
Among the long-term disability policies that do allow individuals to work without having their LTD benefits reduced, many plans limit the amounts an individual can earn, or they reduce benefit payments in a manner designed to match the person’s earnings. This system can allow someone to work part-time, or make a gradual transition in workload, without losing benefits entirely.
Some LTD policies even offer incentives for LTD recipients to get additional education so they can try returning to work in a different field. These incentives may be more common among long-term disability policies that are designed to transition from own-occupation coverage to any-occupation coverage after a set period of time, with two years being a common “breakpoint” for this change.
Own Occupation vs. Any Occupation
While not an absolute rule, it is a general tendency among long-term disability policies that the plans which provide benefits when an individual’s condition prevents them from doing work in their chosen career often have more lenient terms regarding what the person may be able to do without losing benefits than do policies that only provide benefits when the individual is unable to do work of any kind. These plans that apply a broader definition of disability in determining whether an individual qualifies for LTD benefits are known as own occupation policies, while the plans that only consider an individual disabled if he or she is unable to work at all are called any occupation disability policies. Verifying which type of long-term disability policy you have will not directly answer your questions about volunteering while on long-term disability, but it can often help you to narrow your search and have a clearer idea of what to look for in the “fine print” as you review the terms of your own policy.
What Can I Do While on Long-Term Disability?
Most long-term disability insurance policies, even those that provide benefits under the more generous any-occupation standard, require a substantial application and review process that in many cases may require multiple stages and assessments. In addition to the extensive documentation someone seeking long-term disability benefits will usually need to provide, showing medical evidence of their condition and its severity, most LTD applicants can expect to be required to attend at least one independent medical examination (IME) with a third-party physician selected by the insurance company. The review process can also be lengthy, leading to delays in a disabled person’s benefits approval and financially devastating months with no source of income.
Given the significant difficulties involved in the LTD benefit application process, and the high personal stakes of maintaining vs. losing benefits, it is not surprising that many LTD recipients find themselves asking questions about what they can do without calling those benefits into question. Even the most community-minded person may hesitate to offer their time and effort if the volunteer work impact on LTD stands to threaten their very survival.
Surveillance Considerations
Sometimes individuals moving through the application process for LTD benefits are placed under surveillance by the long-term disability insurance companies. These companies will sometimes hire private investigators to “shadow” benefit applicants that adjusters suspect of submitting potentially misleading applications. Unfortunately, a lack of medical understanding and the variability of many deeply disabling conditions can lead video and photographic surveillance data to paint an inaccurate picture in some instances.
For instance, an individual with chronic fatigue syndrome may gear up for several days at a stretch to attend the birthday party of a dear friend, expend all of their available energy to be an active and engaging participant while there, and then need three or four weeks to fully recover. Assuming that preparation, attendance, and return to home take a period of perhaps six hours, that would still not be sufficient to account for a full-time job if executed five days per week, but the larger issue is that an individual with chronic fatigue syndrome might very well be unable to muster a comparable level of energy even as often as one day per week. While video surveillance of this party might be accurate, it would not be representative.
Medical Considerations
Disabled individuals considering the possible volunteer work impact on LTD benefits in their own situations may not always realize that the relationship between their volunteer activities and the medical guidance they have received can also influence whether volunteering while on long-term disability presents a risk of conflict with the terms of their long-term disability policies. Long-term disability insurance companies often expect not only that benefit recipients will refrain from engaging in activities in their free time that they have indicated they are unable to do for work, or require individuals applying for LTD benefits to meet a high standard for medical evidence. They also frequently expect that LTD benefit recipients will adhere to medical advice in the management of their own conditions, and do their utmost to improve their own paths to recovery.
In some instances, volunteering may actually be recommended as part of an individual’s recovery process. This scenario can arise with disability arising from severe mental health concerns, as several studies have shown the positive long-term effects of volunteering on those who participate. Additionally, healthcare providers may consider volunteering a “safe” way of gradually attempting a return to greater physical and mental activity, in an environment where the individual’s financial security is not dependent on their success and from which it is relatively easy to withdraw if the patient ultimately finds the activity too much to sustain.
Estimating the Impact of Volunteer Work on LTD
The most important factor determining the volunteer work impact on LTD in your particular case will be the terms of your own policy regarding volunteer work on long-term disability benefits. Policies can vary significantly in how they handle LTD benefits and volunteering rules, so take the time to review your policy terms in detail and consider working with a disability attorney to help resolve any questions.
Volunteering while on long-term disability can often offer needed social connections and a chance to “try out” different types and levels of activities that might improve your chances of returning to the workforce, but your insurance company will likely be looking for evidence that you no longer meet their criteria for disability. Document your volunteer work extensively to create a record of what you can and cannot do, as well as the frequency or consistency with which you are able to provide volunteer support. Be prepared to communicate with the insurance company regarding these limitations if questions arise, and do not hesitate to seek additional guidance from your medical care team as well as a legal professional.
