Group long-term disability claimants sometimes receive what disability insurance companies call an “overpayment letter,” the gist of which is that an excess amount of benefits has been paid out and so must be returned. There’s a host of circumstances that can trigger an overpayment letter, but the most common by far is the claimant’s receipt of retroactive Social Security Disability (“SSD”) benefits (that is, a lump-sum SSD payment covering one or more months for which the claimant received long-term disability benefits). When that’s the case, however, the overpayment calculation is far from simple, which means that it should be checked and rechecked.
If you’ve received an overpayment letter, don’t simply take your insurance company’s word for it. Hire a competent ERISA attorney to first verify the insurance company’s contention that your claim has been overpaid, and, if so, to confirm the amount that’s due.