What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?Illinois
In 2001 my former employer sent me a letter informing me that I owed them $41000 for what they claimed was an overpayment in my LTD benefits that began back in January of 1994. In 1996 I received a lump sum payment from SSA for unclaimed/unreported earnings for the period that I worked for the employer. In '96 the insurance carrier switched over another company and they immediately denied me. During my appeal and reinstatement process which last 1.5 years, the company never attempted to reset my SSDI offset and reinstated me with the original offset amount. Not until 2001 when I made a claim that I felt I had been underpaid as per the guidelines of the LTD plan document I had been provided and had been used by the employer and the new insurance carrier from 01/96 did the company come back and say that the wrong plan document had been used and that according to the older document I owed them money. The company never asked/required me to reapply to SSA for more SSDI benefits because at the time of my onset of LTD I reported to them that I had been receiving SSDI since '81 and had never come off of SSDI even through my time of employment. The employer asked that I provide them with an awards letter which I did and not until 2001 did they ever ask me even to sign a release of information for SSDI. The company claimed that they did not know about the increase in my SSDI back in '96 even though the appeal show states that they in fact did know about it, a fact my lawyers missed to include in the administrative record, and the SPD and employee handbook states that the SSDI offset will not be adjusted upward for subsequent changes to SSDI. However, the company claims that provision is not inclusive and they conveniently neglected to provide me with an SPD until after the first trial brief was filed. In the LTD plan document there is an exceptions paragraph to increases to the SSDI offset which lists a group of situations where should these situations occur the offset would not increase. But, none of the situations apply to SSDI due to the fact that SSDI will only increase for COLA and unclaimed/unreported income. But, there is one situation "change in personal status" which is not explained or expanded in the plan document but according to the SSA code a "change in personal status" does include a change in employee status as it applies to SSDI and the fact that for my entire time before, during, and after my employment I was in fact receiving SSDI and my qualifying for LTD came about because of a change in my employment status. The company has lied, hid facts, and switched back and forth between plan documents during my time on LTD and to their advantage I have lost at the circuit level. I am need of advice as to whether I am up against a wall now that I have lost at the circuit level, my lawyers missed some key facts, and the company had hid events and documents from me until after filing of court papers. I have filed for appeal, but I need advice on whether I have OTHER legal remedies available to me to possibly take separate action for what has transpired since filing, or if there is some way I can take legal action to get new evidence introduced, or what I can do now to correct this mistake?? HELP!!!!!!!!!
In 2001 my former employer sent me a letter informing me that I owed them $41000 for what they claimed was an overpayment in my LTD benefits that began back in January of 1994. In 1996 I received a lump sum payment from SSA for unclaimed/unreported earnings for the period that I worked for the employer. In '96 the insurance carrier switched over another company and they immediately denied me. During my appeal and reinstatement process which last 1.5 years, the company never attempted to reset my SSDI offset and reinstated me with the original offset amount. Not until 2001 when I made a claim that I felt I had been underpaid as per the guidelines of the LTD plan document I had been provided and had been used by the employer and the new insurance carrier from 01/96 did the company come back and say that the wrong plan document had been used and that according to the older document I owed them money. The company never asked/required me to reapply to SSA for more SSDI benefits because at the time of my onset of LTD I reported to them that I had been receiving SSDI since '81 and had never come off of SSDI even through my time of employment. The employer asked that I provide them with an awards letter which I did and not until 2001 did they ever ask me even to sign a release of information for SSDI. The company claimed that they did not know about the increase in my SSDI back in '96 even though the appeal show states that they in fact did know about it, a fact my lawyers missed to include in the administrative record, and the SPD and employee handbook states that the SSDI offset will not be adjusted upward for subsequent changes to SSDI. However, the company claims that provision is not inclusive and they conveniently neglected to provide me with an SPD until after the first trial brief was filed. In the LTD plan document there is an exceptions paragraph to increases to the SSDI offset which lists a group of situations where should these situations occur the offset would not increase. But, none of the situations apply to SSDI due to the fact that SSDI will only increase for COLA and unclaimed/unreported income. But, there is one situation "change in personal status" which is not explained or expanded in the plan document but according to the SSA code a "change in personal status" does include a change in employee status as it applies to SSDI and the fact that for my entire time before, during, and after my employment I was in fact receiving SSDI and my qualifying for LTD came about because of a change in my employment status. The company has lied, hid facts, and switched back and forth between plan documents during my time on LTD and to their advantage I have lost at the circuit level. I am need of advice as to whether I am up against a wall now that I have lost at the circuit level, my lawyers missed some key facts, and the company had hid events and documents from me until after filing of court papers. I have filed for appeal, but I need advice on whether I have OTHER legal remedies available to me to possibly take separate action for what has transpired since filing, or if there is some way I can take legal action to get new evidence introduced, or what I can do now to correct this mistake?? HELP!!!!!!!!!