Goal of Disability Insurance

• Disability insurance is designed to help you maintain your standard of living while you are out of work. You can use the benefits to pay for things like your mortgage and other bills, groceries and medical expenses. While you hope that you will never need to use it, disability insurance can enable you to keep your house through a hard time, or avoid bankruptcy.
  
  

Who Needs Disability Insurance?

• Single people often benefit most from having disability insurance because they do not have a spouse's salary or earning potential to fall back on. Single people who want to maintain their independence will benefit from obtaining disability insurance because it will enable them to maintain as much of their independence as possible during a time of medical crisis.
  
  

Do I Need Private Disability Insurance?

• Social Security does provide disability insurance benefits, but they are limited to $789 for a disabled worker, $199 for a disabled worker's spouse, and $230 for a disabled worker's child. Those amounts can help, but you might be unable to maintain your standard of living on those amounts. Private insurance will subsidize those amounts and might help you maintain your current lifestyle.