• Nearly one in three Americans ages 35-65 will become disabled for more than 90 days.
• A 35-year-old has a greater chance of becoming seriously disabled than he does of dying before he reaches age 65¹.
• Once an individual has been disabled for 90 days, the average length of disability is two years².
• A fatal injury occurs every five minutes and a disabling injury occurs every two seconds³.
• More than 20 million Americans suffer disabling injuries each year⁴.
• Two thirds of disabling injuries suffered by American workers in 2004 were off-the-job, meaning they weren't covered by workers comp⁵.
• Many people buy life insurance so that if they die, their families will have a way to pay the mortgage. However, the odds of mortgage foreclosure due to disability are 16 times greater than the risk of foreclosure due to death⁶.

• What Are the Most Common Reasons for filing a Disability Claim?
• What Kind of Injuries Could Potentially Cause a Short-Term Disability?
• Why Should Someone Consider Purchasing Disability Insurance?
• What Are Some Financial Concerns Families May Face Connected With An Illness or Injury?
• Won't Social Security Cover Disabilities?

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What Are the Most Common Reasons for filing a Disability Claim?

In 2005, and for the fifth consecutive year, cancer was the leading cause of long-term absence from work for Unum customers. Of the long term disability claims filed, 12 percent were for cancer and nearly a quarter of those cancer claims were for breast cancer. Here are the top five causes of disability claims filed by Unum customers⁷:

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What Kind of Injuries Could Potentially Cause a Short-Term Disability?

Some of the answers may surprise you. The U.S. government tracks emergency room treatment for injuries associated with consumer products, including everything from fireworks to fence posts. Here are some of the more unusual findings:

And, as you might suspect, it pays to watch your step. More than a million people a year are injured on stairs⁸.

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Why Should Someone Consider Purchasing Disability Insurance?

• Health insurance will cover medical costs, but does not replace lost income.
• Workers' compensation only covers accidents and injuries that occur on the job.
• Your savings can be drained quickly by the costs of a disability or illness. Personal savings rates averaged 10.4 percent in the 1980s, but in 2005, it was -0.5 percent. In other words, Americans spent more than they earned, something that has not happened since the Great Depression⁹.
• Social Security Disability Insurance only pays a limited benefit for severe disabilities that are expected to last at least 12 months or result in death¹⁰.

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What Are Some Financial Concerns Families May Face Connected With An Illness or Injury?

• In a recent study released by Harvard, half of nearly 2,000 Americans surveyed filed for bankruptcy due to medical reasons¹¹.
• More than one quarter of the study participants filing bankruptcy cited illness or injury as a specific reason¹².
• Study findings suggest that the number of medical bankruptcies increased twenty three-fold between 1981 and 2001¹³.

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Won't Social Security Cover Disabilities?

Social Security Disability Insurance has stiff eligibility requirements. The government requires that you work a minimum number of years, based on your age at the time of disability. If you qualify, you must go through a lengthy evaluation process, which can take several months, before you can receive your first disability check¹⁴. The government only pays a benefit for severe disabilities that are expected to last at least 12 months or result in death. In 2004, only 37 out of 100 initial applications for Social Security Disability were approved¹⁵.

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1. 2005 Field Guide to Estate Planning, Business Planning & Employee Benefits, by Donald Cady, The National Underwriter Company.
2. Commissioners Group Disability Basic Table, Society of Actuaries, 1987.
3. National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2004 edition.
4. National Safety Council, Injury Facts. 2005-2006 edition.
5. National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2004 edition.
6. National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2004 edition.
7. Unum's annual report on disability trends is based upon 2005 data from the company's disability database the largest private database of its kind in this country. The database tracks 26.8 million covered individuals and an estimated 178,000 employer policyholders.
8. National Safety Council, Injury Facts, 2004.
9. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, February 2006.
10. Social Security Administration, "Flow of Cases Through the Disability Process, Fiscal Year 2004 Data.
11. Health Affairs, Feb. 2, 2005, The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere. "Market Watch: Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy," by David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler, p. W5-63, p. W5-71.
12. Health Affairs, Feb. 2, 2005, The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere. "Market Watch: Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy," by David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler, p. W5-63, p. W5-71.
13. Health Affairs, Feb. 2, 2005, The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere. "Market Watch: Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy," by David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne, and Steffie Woolhandler, p. W5-63, p. W5-71.
14. Disability Benefits, SSA Publication No. 05-10029, January 2006, ICN 456000.
15. Social Security Administration, "Flow of Cases Through the Disability Process, Fiscal Year 2004 Data.