Five simple ways to help ministers get to know temporary disability coverage

Because temporary disability coverage is included with Minister’s Choice and Pastor’s Participation, it might be easy to overlook this valuable coverage. But as you may know, being aware of temporary disability coverage is critical for those who are sick or injured and unable to perform their regular work duties.

Helping your ministers know about this benefit does more than provide essential income when they are unable to work. It has the potential to help employees:

• see you as an employer who values their well-being,
• healthfully recover from injury and illness that takes them away from their work, and
• avoid a longer-term absence because they are able to take needed time away in the short term.

And remember, because you don’t have to provide income during approved periods of temporary disability, advising ministers of the coverage can help you as an employer.

While you can always direct ministers to the Temporary Disability Plan page on pensions.org to learn more, you should consider helping to educate them. Research has shown that employer-provided information is critical to helping employees become better consumers of healthcare.

Here are five simple ways to help your ministers take advantage of temporary disability coverage:

Make time to talk about it. Even if you don’t have a minister who can immediately take advantage of the benefit, take part of a meeting to remind them that the benefit is available, generally provides up to 60 percent of salary (up to $305,000), and is there for them to use when they need it.

Help ministers see how the benefit could be used. While you shouldn’t offer healthcare advice or guarantees of benefit approval — explaining that temporary disability can sometimes be used for recovery after certain kinds of surgery, injury, or illness can help them think about how it might apply to their situation.

Explain the timelines. There are three time periods to consider with temporary disability.

• Most importantly, ministers can take advantage of it after 14 days of disability where they are unable to work.
• The benefits can be available for up to 90 days from the date the disability begins, after which employees may be eligible for long-term disability.
• For circumstances like a planned surgery, ministers can apply for the benefits up to 30 days in advance of when they will be out of work.
• Ministers have 30 days from the date of disability to apply for temporary disability benefits.

You don’t have to have all the answers. Though you can provide general examples and timelines, if ministers have further questions, you can provide them with information from the disability benefits toolkit, direct them to call the Board at 800-773-7752 (800-PRESPLAN) with questions, or contact Lincoln Financial at 888-970-2487 to apply.

Make time to talk about it (again). Because the benefits are not frequently used, reminding yourself to talk about it occasionally (even once a year) will help ministers feel valued and empowered to use the benefits when they need it.

Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information