Why Your Ministry Should Offer Disability Insurance
When someone tells me they are starting a new job and asks what type of benefits they should enroll in, I always tell them “disability insurance.” When a church or ministry asks me what benefits they should offer their employees, I always tell them “disability.” Not what you might have expected, right? But here’s why:
Whether young or old, an accident or illness can happen to anyone, anytime. About 25% of people in their 20s today will be disabled and unable to work for at least a year before they retire. Once an employee receives a medical diagnosis or is injured it is extremely difficult, and often impossible, to successfully apply for disability insurance.
Employer vs. Employee
Disability insurance is an easy benefit for employers to offer with great returns. The premiums are generally very affordable and the percentage of the overall HR budget to carry this insurance is usually between 1-3%. The benefit usually exceeds this cost, though, especially in ministry.
It is also definitely worth mentioning the benefit and relief it can provide to pastoral staff that have opted out of Social Security. Those individuals are highly unlikely to qualify for disability benefits of any kind if they do not already have disability insurance. Offering disability insurance as an employer is a small gesture that goes a long way to show your staff you care about them. Not to mention it can help with recruitment efforts, too!
All vs. Some Staff
If you can afford it, we recommend providing it for all staff members. It will probably surprise you how affordable it is! If you can’t afford it for all staff members right away, begin with Pastoral and Ministry leaders. Make a plan to shift your budget to cover all staff over the course of the next few years.
Disability insurance is an inexpensive way to avoid the very common situation many ministries encounter: the moral obligation felt to financially care for any employee and their family during a crisis. In most instances of injury or health crisis, you’ll have the desire to provide generous financial assistance. Having a disability insurance policy in place for everyone lightens the load on your ministry and takes a mental load off of your staff members.
Short-Term vs. Long-Term
It is advisable to start with at least long-term disability if you can’t afford both. If your Paid Time Off (PTO) policy is generous enough, employees can often bridge the gap during the period between an accident or illness and when long-term disability benefits kick in, reducing the need for short-term disability.
What’s Next?
Contact a qualified broker to discuss how to best structure a plan and find out how much it will cost. You can also encourage your employees to look into additional policies of their own. You can find two great resources from Thrivent discussing the benefits and myths around disability insurance!
Do you need more help figuring out benefits or insurance?
Nicole Gregory is an HR Advisor with HR Ministry Solutions. She has over 25 years of HR experience, both in corporate and church settings and holds HRMP, SPHR and SHRM-SCP designations. Her passion is working alongside churches and ministries to help them make sense of the often-confusing world of HR.