The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) allows Texas workers to receive long-term disability benefits.
After you file your ERISA claim for your disability benefits, you are likely to wonder just how long you will have to wait for a decision. The law states that the decision on a disability claim must be made within a reasonable time.
The standard deadline
This typically means approximately 45 calendar days. This means that weekends and holidays are counted as days, so after you submit your claim, you should receive a decision within a month and a half.
You might have to wait a bit longer to receive your decision in certain situations. This usually happens when the plan needs more information to properly review your claim.
Extensions and their requirements
However, you should receive notification within the 45-day period about what type of additional information is needed. Once you provide that information, the plan can get an extension for up to 30 days to issue the decision.
Additional extensions are possible, but you must be contacted before each previous extension expires. This means that if any extension is necessary, you should not go more than 30 days before hearing something about your claim, even if it is a request for an additional extension.
Your deadline to provide additional information
When you are asked to provide information, the plan must give you 45 days to provide the information. You should not be expected to try to get the information within a shorter timeframe, which may not be possible or practical.
You should also be provided with information about when the plan expects to make a final decision.
Help is available
The bottom line with all of these deadlines is you should never find yourself waiting and wondering what, if anything, is going on with your ERISA claim.
Working with an attorney experienced with ERISA claims can help with making sure the process moves along accordingly and you do not experience any unnecessary delays.
