Do you have to repay your short term disability pay if you decide not to go back to work?

fpaben

I've been debating the option of staying home once our second baby is born. However, I need the insurance to have the baby. I've heard that if you tell your boss you aren't coming back before you actually make your return, that you may be forced to return the money paid to you while on leave. This may be an issue to take up with the insurance provider, but I'm curious if anyone out there has heard of this. And if anyone has any advice.?

yellowsnow

Your company offers a short term disability policy?  You WILL NOT have to return the money paid to you under short term disability while out on leave.  Also, if you have worked at your job for more than one year and 1250 hours, your company is required to continue your medical insurance while you are on leave, this is part of the Family Medical Leave Act.  Once you give them your notice that you will not be back, you will be offered COBRA insurance at which time it's in your best interest to add yourself and baby to your DH's policy or to enroll in an individual policy because COBRA is super expensive. 

My suggestion is that you don't tell your boss that you won't be coming back until the end of your leave, to make sure you receive all your short term disability payments. 

HTH!!!  I work in benefits and deal with short term disability and FMLA quite frequently. 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that your company is required to continue your health insurance.  You may be able to set up a payment plan while you are out to pay the premiums on a monthly basis, some companies pay the premiums while you are out and require you to pay back the premiums when you return or when you decide to resign.   Let me know if that doesn't make sense. 

fpaben

Yes, through my insurance from my company, I get short term disability leave. With my last little one I received the payments in one chunk about a month after our baby was born. And thank you for mentioning the payment of health insurance while I'm out. I forgot all about that. We paid the full amount upfront so I would be guaranteed coverage while out on leave. ?

I heard people here at my office talking about another woman who just came back from maternity leave, and they were saying "I think you have to come back from leave or repay the money." I didn't think that was true, but with the business world today, I wanted to get advice from other moms.?

Any advice on how/when to tell them I'm not returning? ??

??

rebeccaontherocks

A sidenote to yellowsnow's post above:

FMLA only applies to companies with more than 50 employees.  

And the new stimulus package that was passed makes it so that COBRA is 65% paid for by the company through tax credits and/or payroll tax deductions.  So as of 3/1/09 you would only have to pay 35% of the premium for COBRA.  In most cases that is cheaper than being added to a spouses insurance plan.  Also if you voluntarily leave your company, your spouses plan might not pick you up until open enrollment since it voluntary leave it not a qualifying event.

I also work in accounting/benefits.

kt1025

rebeccaontherocks:

So as of 3/1/09 you would only have to pay 35% of the premium for COBRA.  

I work in HR and I believe the COBRA stimuls only applies if you lose your job/coverage through no fault of your own (ie, layoff).  If you choose not to return after leave and elect COBRA, you would be responsible for 100% of the premiums.

d.f

I don't know about insurance since I've always been on DH's policy but at my former company their policy was you had to go back to work for at least one day or you had to pay back the STD money. Luckily HR was very nice and waived the requirement for me.

jason&robin

For me, I had to return to work. Now, they didn't specify a certain time frame. I just could quit while I was on leave. I felt really bad about it but I came back for 2 days and then left. I didn't have the chance to give 2 weeks' notice. I had already trained someone to do my work for me though. I don't think it was a huge deal. I didn't have to pay anything back. I called HR before I left though. I didn't go into too many specifics. I just asked them what the policy was. They are supposed to be confidential.