Legal Question in Employment Law in Massachusetts
My mother was recently laid-off as a live-in caretaker for an elderly woman after my mother recieved a bad cancer diagnosis. Granted my mother will not be able to perform her job during treatment however shouldn't she have be able to go on her former employer's long term disability insurance? Instead she has had to go on unemployment insurance, cobra and she has filed for SSA long-term disability. It seems to me that the company laid her off to avoid having to continue paying her health insurance and allowing her to get long term disability through their insurance provider.
1 Answer from Attorneys
I am assuming that your mother's employer was in the private sector and was not a religious organization. If my assumptions are correct, your mother's claim is likely to be governed under ERISA. There are other reasons why the plans could be exempt from ERISA. Further assuming that your mother's employer provides short term and/or long term disability insurance, your mother's date of disability probably precedes the date she left work. Therefore, she should be eligible for benefits if she meets the terms of the plan. Because she left work should not be a reason alone to deny benefits.. There are only a handful of states that require employers to provide short term disability benefits, and not states require long term disability benefits. It is impossible to provide a more thorough answer without knowing more facts.
Jonathan M. Feigenbaum
Phillips & Angley
One Bowdoin Square
Boston, MA 02114
' 617-367-8787
� 617-227-8992
www.erisaattorneys.com
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