Short term Disability for Pregnency

[maria29]

I am curious to see if and how many families use this to help the woman stay home with a paid maternity leave and to cover some of it after.I know with Aflac you can’t be pregnant for 10 months before you can even start to use your policy.

 

[Robaynne]

I have never heard of this before. Maybe we just do different things here is South Africa. What happens with Mat Leave you can take a month before the baby comes with full pay and thereafter you can take some companies say 3 months some do 6 months with full pay and if you want to take your accumulated leave you can. So with a result your company pays you full salary for those months that you are off.

I wish that I could help but I have never heard of this before. But I am sure that there is somebody here who can help you. Good luck and God Bless.

 

[Nechasin]

We use short-term disablity with all three of my dw pregnancies. She doesn’t get any paid maternity, so if we want any of it covered it has to be with short-term disablity. She does take her full 12 weeks of FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), and short-term disablity only covers 6 weeks. One thing to be aware of with FMLA is that you have to be working full-time and your company has to have a minimum size before it takes affect. I know of several women who either lost their jobs, quit, or went back to work after 6 weeks because they didn’t qualify for FMLA.

 

[Em_in_FL]

I received short term disability through my work after both my pregnancies…

For those curious… in the US we have the FMLA (family medical leave act), which allows employees (of companies over a certain number of employees) to take leave after a birth (this includes fathers, by the way!), for up to 12 weeks without the fear of loosing your job. FMLA does not guarantee any sort of paid leave. There are no paid maternity leaves through the US government…

One of my company’s benefit plans includes short term disability, which is paid leave for medical reasons. Usually after a “normal” labor and delivery the OB/GYN will say recovery time is 6 weeks (normally 8 weeks for a c-sect)… therefore, the paid short term disability that I receive is only over that 6 week period, and my disability benefit is only 60% of my regular pay check.

I can still take the additional 6 more weeks after that away from work under the FMLA laws, but there is no pay for that time period…

I’ve been able to use this benefit after both my pregnancies…

 

[CLMargaret]

My STD policy is almost identical to the above post. I’ve used it for 2 previous pregnancies and will be using it again in a few month.

I’m paid 60% of my pay for 6 weeks for a regular delivery (8 weeks for C Sect) up to $1,000 every 2 weeks. I have a 1 week waiting period from the time of disability before I can collect. The last 2 pregnancies I’ve had some small complications that required me to be off of work before delivery. I was paid the 60% from that time until 6 weeks after delivery. Sounds like these are common terms for STD policies. I’ve taken more time off (unpaid) to be with the babies, but the STD sure helps to pay some of the bills.

 

[SMHW]

In the United States, disability programs are either company sponsored and/or state sponsored. As a result, some women will have some paid disability benefits and others will not. In most cases, state sponsored programs are based on the curent state minimum wage rather than the woman’s actual pay.

I received benefits for my first two… well three, (the first was stillborn so while it was disability it wasn’t classified as ‘maternity’.) For my youngest child I was laid off from my job while pregnant. I had opted out of my state program to take exclusive use of the company policy. But lay offs resulted in immediate loss of disablilty benefits and at that point I wasn’t elligible for state benefits anymore. (I did get unemployment benefits so long as I actively looked for a new job, which I did up until the day I delivered.)

 

[Archerette74]

I took atvantage of this and highly recommend it to any pregnant ladies. I took the full 12 weeks and it was one of the best decisions we ever made.

I say “we” because it was both my hubby and I who had to save enough money to compensate for what disability would not pay. We both made some sacrifices to be able to do this and I can’t recommend it enough!

 

[mrsjmwhts1]

Short term disability (STD) is a great benefit to have. I work for a large disability insurance company. STD policies are structured as the other users have indicated; unless you have medical complications you can only use this benefit for a 6 week post partum period. Generally you can only get 6 weeks regardless if you deliver vaginally or via cesearan, however you should clarify this when you speak with your STD representative. Should you develop medical complications (praying this is not the case) be sure to keep your insurance representative updated and provide whatever documentation they request from your doctor. Consideration may also be given to how physical a job you perform and the opinion of your OBGYN. Best of luck for a safe delivery and healthy bundle of joy.

 

[hasikelee]

I have ST and long term insurance and the terms of the policy include pregnancy and maternity leave.

So, if I were pregnant, I could wait until the baby is born, then use 6 weeks of st and 14 weeks of lt, with 60% and 50% of my paycheck being given to me, respectively.

 

[Truly_Beloved]

For those curious… in the US we have the FMLA (family medical leave act), which allows employees (of companies over a certain number of employees) to take leave after a birth (this includes fathers, by the way!), for up to 12 weeks without the fear of loosing your job. FMLA does not guarantee any sort of paid leave. There are no paid maternity leaves through the US government…

I would just like to add that you have to be employed by your current employer for at least 1 year prior to delivery, to receive FMLA benefits. Before staying home, I was hired for a government job that I held for 6 months before giving birth. My employer was not bound by FMLA at all because I hadn’t been there for 12 months.

I knew I was staying home, anyway, so being guaranteed a job wasn’t an issue for me, but thought I would pass that along.