Most people receiving disability insurance look to receive monthly benefits when they can’t work due to medical impairment. However, if you have a Unum claim it may seem as though you are continuously paying THEM and not the other way around.
We all are aware of the SSDI scam with Lucens requesting SSA Authorizations and sending notices that suddenly, out of no where, an overpayment exists. Unum forgives the bulk of it and informs you they will be reducing next month’s benefit to recover a small portion. This has been going on for at least two years and the public is well aware of the scam. The jig is up!
Then, 6 months later, a part-time working claimant receives another Unum letter informing the company did another recalculation and there is another overpayment due. Once again, next months benefit is reduced. How many times is Unum going to go through the recalculation cycle? This particular scam can be quite simple, or utterly complex.
For example, a physician working part-time receives a letter from Unum stating he exceeded 80% of pre-disability earnings twice. Therefore, Unum denied his claim twice, forced him to meet additional elimination periods and calculated an overpayment for each new claim. More money going out to Unum than coming in to the insured!
In the past, Unum just didn’t pay the insured for the months he/she exceeded pre-disability earnings, but now, claims are denied, new claims are created, new Elimination Periods needed to be met, and Unum receives payback for benefits alleged to be owed. What?
In my opinion, the real scam is that Unum doesn’t disclose the nature of the error that caused the overpayments. On occasion, a recalculation sheet is sent that insureds have complained to me they don’t understand. I know the one they mean, and it is confusing.
In any other field of business would anyone ever consider paying back money without proof that it is really owed? Unum’s conflict of interest as reviewer and payer of claims allows the company to automatically deduct amounts owed on it’s say-so alone. And, claimants and insureds are allowing this to happen without challenging Unum to disclose the errors and who made them. Insureds never really know if they are being cheated out of their benefits or not……
One insured was really fed-up and took Unum to small claims court, and of course, that’s always an option. But, the real problem is that Unum is allowed to get away with these nickel and dimming scams and disability insurance intended to put food on the table is in the pockets of Unum’s stockholders.
Unum’s constant “recalculating” is robbing insureds a penny at a time and needs to be stopped. Is it really believable that Unum makes so many financial errors? I don’t think so, and in my opinion, Unum’s nickel and dimming schemes are deliberate and desperate measures to cut its losses.
My recommendation is for insureds to “wake-up” and demand full disclosure of the specific error that caused the overpayment so that claimants are allowed due process to challenge the alleged debt before it is deducted from benefits.
