Celebrating Moms & Summer

By Laura Marzi, May 2012

May is a time to celebrate mothers and the unofficial start of summer. Mother's Day and summertime make me reflective.

Mother's Day is a time when I'm showered with homemade cards and burnt pancakes. I realize how grateful I am for my family, and how proud I am to be able to work to support them. This is especially true when we finally get our long-awaited vacations, and I realize that those countless meetings and conference calls have paid off in the pure joy of watching my son dig in the sand at the beach.

May is also Disability Insurance Awareness Month. You may not know it, but there’s a connection between mothers, warm weather and the insurance that can help provide an income when you can't work due to an illness or off-the-job injury.

Pregnancy is the No. 1 reason for short-term disability insurance claims. And the number of people out of work due to injuries starts to rise along with the temperature, according to The Hartford’s claims data.

You might think that those two reasons alone would motivate many workers to protect their paychecks. However, The Hartford Benefits For Tomorrow Study found only about half of working Americans have disability insurance. According to the 2012 survey, 52 percent of Americans have short-term disability insurance, and only 44 percent have long-term coverage.

Those who don’t have paycheck protection might turn to Mom for help if they have an accident this summer and can’t work. The national study showed 14 percent of workers who don’t have disability insurance said that if they’re disabled for six weeks, they would rely on a family member for help – either asking for a loan or moving in with them.

Some people may be going without paycheck protection because of a lack of understanding. The Hartford Benefits For Tomorrow Study also found only 28 percent of Americans completely understand disability insurance; 45 percent of survey participants overestimated the cost of short-term disability insurance by hundreds of dollars; and another 45 percent said they had “no idea” how much the coverage costs.

In fact, disability insurance that you get at work can cost about a dollar a day. I’m grateful to have disability insurance through my employer so that I can help protect my family finances.

You can find out more about disability insurance with The Hartford’s MyTomorrow online tool. Plus, you can always ask Mom about it – and while you’re at it, ask if she's protected her paycheck, too.

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