Social Security Disability Insurance

• All workers who contribute taxes to the Social Security system may be eligible to receive disability insurance from the Social Security Administration. The administration only provides benefits for long-term, total disability that lasts longer than a year and prevents a beneficiary from earning more than $1,000 a month. Generally, workers must have worked at least half of the prior 10 years and must meet minimum work-duration tests based upon their age. Beneficiaries who qualify for SSDI must be certified as disabled by a physician. Benefits are based upon a portion of a beneficiary's previous earnings.
  
  

Workers' Compensation Disability Insurance

• Workers who are injured on the job may qualify for short-term disability insurance through their states' workers' compensation disability insurance programs. States determine their own regulations regarding qualifications and benefit amounts, but beneficiaries typically receive about 66 percent of their wages each week, up to a maximum amount set by state law, when injured or suffering from a workplace-induced illness and unable to work. These benefits are meant to replace wages lost from lack of work -- workers' compensation also provides medical coverage -- and state laws require most employees be covered.
  
  

Group Policies

• Many employers offer disability insurance through a group policy provided as an employee benefit. These policies often provide beneficiaries with about 60 percent of their weekly wages when they become disabled and can't work. Group-plan premiums are typically smaller than those for an individual plan with comparable coverage levels. Employers determine which classes of workers may enroll in group disability insurance plans, so contact your company's human resources department to determine if hourly workers may obtain coverage.
  
  

Individual Plans

• Hourly workers and self-employed entrepreneurs may purchase individual disability insurance plans for themselves, paying the cost out of pocket. These plans may provide up to 80 percent of a beneficiary's earnings -- or be used to supplement the gap between a group plan and individual plan rates -- when a beneficiary becomes disabled. If a worker pays for his own disability insurance premiums, the benefits his insurer provides are exempt from taxes.
  
  

Own Occupation Riders

• Many disability insurance policies only provide benefits if a worker is completely unable to work. For example, a professional basketball player who loses a leg can still work at a desk, so he wouldn't qualify for benefits. An own occupation rider provides benefits if the beneficiary becomes disabled to the degree he can't return to his original job. A pro basketball player would receive disability benefits through an own occupation plan in the previous example.