Unum’s focus on SSDI inquiries has finally hit insane levels as claimants continue to contact DCS, Inc. about Lucens, Genex, or Unum’s harassment to obtain old 1099’s or SSA’s records of benefit payments.
Unum’s motivation is quite clear. In the last two years the company (Lucens, Genex) has been harassing claimants for SSDI financial information so that the company can look for money owed back to them as a result of its own mistakes. In addition to Unum’s “hunt and peck” audits of SSDI records, the company is not returning estimated SSDI offset money, is pro-rating underpayments to reduce amounts owed, and is basically giving the ERISA folks a hard time when it comes to anything related to SSDI and overpayments.
Claimants are not allowed due process in challenging alleged overpayments and the nature of Unum’s error is never disclosed. Claimants are sent Unum’s old, and I mean very old, overpayment calculation sheet and are expected to understand what it means. No explanations of what the errors were accompanies the calculation sheet, but included is a letter stating Unum will reduce future benefits to recover.
Hum…reducing future benefits increases cash flow leading me to opine that Unum might be hard up for money. The company is absolutely paranoid about keeping up with SSDI awards presumably in order to “get the money” before claimants have an opportunity to spend it.
Disgruntled calls from ERISA claimants to DCS, Inc. are not unreasonable when describing Unum’s SSDI harassment involving SSDI applications, threatened estimated deductions, and overpayments for keeping up the appeal process. The company completely lost its marbles about the issue and is harassing claimants to the point where many of them are just fed up.
Although two years ago owed amounts held out to claimants began with minimal amounts, today overpayments of between $40,000 – $60,000 are quite common. Unum’s mantra is to “forgive” most of the overpayment but demand repayment of amounts between $5,000 – $7,000, by reducing future benefits by amounts to recover.
What if a Walmart cashier told you, “The cost of your purchases is really $40,000 but we’re only going to charge you $19.99 for what you bought today.” Would you take that deal?
Unum isn’t stupid, and taking advantage of any human’s desire to cut their losses, the company gains at their expense. What a clever scam this is!
Here is my suggestion:
Ask Unum to disclose the nature of any alleged errors, by providing you with a written description of Unum’s errors, dates of occurrence, and calculation sheet. This should be done before any offset reductions of benefits takes place. Unum should be made to prove you were overpaid before it recovers any money.
Ask Unum to provide you with a written statement that no further errors will take place and that moving forward no additional “overpayments” due to error will be held against you. Who’s to say Unum wouldn’t audit your SSDI benefits again and find additional money due over and over again to lessen actual amounts paid.
Although corporate scams are a dime a dozen these days, Unum’s SSDI scams are costing ERISA claimants millions in benefit dollars they can’t afford to lose. Unum should at least be held accountable to prove and explain what they allege is owed.
