How much disability insurance do you need?
Enter the money you need each month after tax, your salary and who pays your group plan. The calculator gives the benefit to buy on top of the plan you have.
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Monthly benefit to buy on top of your plan
$1,340
$4,340 needed before tax, your plan gives $3,000
| Gap to fill, after tax | $4,000 |
| Benefit needed before tax | $4,340 |
| Group plan benefit | $3,000 |
| Share of the benefit taxed | 100% |
An individual policy bought with your own money pays tax-free. Insurers decide how much coverage they will issue against your income.
Compiled by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · IRS rules and BLS plan data read November 7, 2026
The benefit to buy is the monthly money you need after tax, minus what would keep coming in, converted into a gross benefit by the tax rule of the policy. Start from spending, not salary: housing, debt payments, insurance, food and transport, plus savings you want to keep up. Someone who needs $4,500 a month and earns $90,000 takes home about $6,012 today. An employer-paid group plan at 60% would pay $4,500 gross, or about $4,142 after federal income tax for a single filer. To keep $4,500 from a taxable benefit alone would take $4,908 a month; from a policy bought with after-tax money, which is tax-free under IRS Publication 525, exactly $4,500. A spouse's $1,500 of monthly income brings the need to $3,000. Insurers then decide how much coverage they will issue against your earnings, counting group coverage too.
Start from spending
The number that matters is the money you would need each month if you could not work: housing, utilities, insurance premiums, debt payments, food, transport, child care, and contributions you want to maintain, such as to retirement savings. Some costs fall during a disability, commuting and work clothes for example; some rise, such as health costs or help at home. Write the figure you would actually need, after tax, in the first field of the calculator. It is the target the rest of the arithmetic serves.
Then subtract what would keep coming in: a spouse's pay, rental income, a pension already in payment. The difference is the money a disability benefit has to provide, after tax.
Turn the gap into a gross benefit
A disability benefit is taxable or not depending on who paid for it (IRS Publication 525). If the employer pays, or you pay by pre-tax deduction, the benefit is taxed with the 2026 brackets and standard deduction like wages (Revenue Procedure 2025-32), and the calculator grosses up the target by solving for the benefit that leaves the target after tax. If you pay after tax, including any individual policy you buy yourself, the benefit is the target. The difference for $4,500 is $408 a month.
The benefit your budget needs
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Monthly benefit to buy on top of your plan
$1,908
| Gap to fill, after tax | $4,500 |
| Benefit needed before tax | $4,908 |
| Group plan benefit | $3,000 |
| Share of the benefit taxed | 100% |
Subtract the group plan
If your employer offers long-term disability, the calculator subtracts what the plan pays: its percentage of your salary, limited by its maximum. Enter your plan's figures in the options; the defaults are the private industry medians of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for March 2026, 60% and $10,000 (BLS). Be careful to compare like with like. The calculator compares the gross plan benefit with the gross benefit needed under the tax rule you selected; if your group plan is taxable and the policy you would buy is not, run the calculator twice, once for each arrangement, or use the long-term disability calculator for the net group figure.
Group coverage has another limit: it usually ends when you leave the job. If you expect to change employers or work for yourself, the gap may be larger than today's figure, and the self-employed page starts from zero group coverage.
Social Security is not a plan
Social Security disability pays only under a strict definition, after a waiting period and a decision that can take months, and a group plan subtracts it anyway. Counting on an award to fill the gap overstates what you would have, and this site does not estimate awards. If you already receive one, enter it as other income.
From the gap to a policy
Review the figure whenever your budget or your job changes: a new mortgage, a child, a raise above the group plan's maximum or a move to self-employment all change the gap. Once you know the monthly benefit to add, choose the other terms: the elimination period, which your savings must cover; the benefit period, to an age or for a number of years; the definition of disability; and a cost-of-living rider for long claims. The cost page then measures the premium on each quote.