Disability Insurance: Why Employees Skim or Skip it

November 2025

For more than three decades, employee benefits communication and education have been key areas of focus within the industry. To help employees better understand their benefits offerings, employers are increasingly adopting multichannel communication strategies and methods to reach their workers. However, despite these efforts to improve awareness, comprehension remains low, particularly when it comes to disability insurance. Recent research from LIMRA explores why employees tend to overlook these materials and offers insights into how disability insurance can be made more relevant, understandable and valuable.

The Disconnect

There’s a clear gap between what employees say and what they do. While 8 in 10 employees acknowledge the importance of reviewing benefits during open enrollment, the reality is most employees take a more passive approach to benefits education; the most common behavior during open enrollment is skimming (Figure 1). This lack of engagement is apparent not only for disability insurance but for other nonmedical benefits as well. Unlike medical coverage, which is often top of mind for employees, these benefits require more explanation and stronger communication to capture attention and drive understanding.

Why Employees Skip or Skim

To uncover why disability materials often go unread, we asked employees directly: “What typically leads you to skip or skim the materials?” Even those who are enrolled in disability coverage admitted to skimming or skipping the materials. Their responses revealed three key themes, with participants allowed to select multiple options — resulting in percentage totals exceeding 100 percent.

1. Prioritization and Familiarity
   This evidence suggests that nonmedical benefits often take a back seat to perceptively more urgent options like medical coverage. Even when employees say they understand, testing reveals a lack of knowledge about basic aspects of disability eligibility, benefit timing, risk, and common causes of disability.
   
   
   1. The largest number of employees say they were focused on other benefits that they perceived as more important than disability (30 percent).
   2. Nearly as many reported skipping or skimming because they reported that they already understood the information (29 percent).
   3. Others reported that disability is not a benefit they think about (27 percent).
      
      
2. Confusion or Relevance
   There is a need to better explain why disability coverage matters in a way that is relevant to employees.
   
   
   1. Some employees didn’t think disability was relevant to them (23 percent).
   2. They reported that it was confusing (14 percent).
   3. They didn’t think it was worth the cost (13 percent).
      
      

3. Barriers to Action
   Even when employees are interested in engaging with materials, logistical or social barriers can stop them from engaging.

   • Employees didn’t want to enroll in disability (14 percent).
   • Others ran out of time during enrollment to make a careful decision (12 percent).
   • They reported that someone recommended that they didn’t need it (4 percent).

Perceived Value of Benefits

What separates those who skim benefits materials from those who engage deeply? A key factor is how valuable they believe the benefit is. Employees who are enrolled in short- or long-term disability insurance are more likely to rate it as valuable or very valuable compared to those who aren’t enrolled. That perceived value is linked to how closely they engage with the materials.

For example:

• 65 percent of employees who rated long-term disability insurance as “very valuable” said they reviewed the materials closely (Figure 2).
• In contrast, 43 percent of those who saw it as merely “valuable” did the same.

This pattern holds true for short-term disability as well, suggesting that when employees see a benefit as personally important, they are more likely to invest time in understanding it.

Strategies to Increase Benefits Engagement

A major barrier to benefits engagement is the lack of clear communication and perceived understanding from employers. Only 30 percent of employees feel their employer understands their overall benefits needs very well. Additionally, only 31 percent believe their employer communicates about nonmedical benefits very well, according to unpublished findings from LIMRA’s U.S. Consumer Sentiment: July 2024. Among those enrolled in disability, 62 percent said that their employer communicates its disability benefits about the same as other benefits. When employees don’t feel heard or supported, their interest in benefits and their perception of value declines.

To better understand what employees need, we asked them directly: “What would help you feel more supported or informed when reviewing workplace benefits?”  From 1,284 open-ended responses, clear themes emerged around communication, accessibility and support.

1. Clearer Explanations — Employees want plain language, less jargon and more transparency. Real-life examples and use cases help make benefits feel relevant and easier to understand.
2. Personalized Support — Many prefer direct, face-to-face communication (whether through human resources representatives, hotlines or live chats) to get real-time, personalized guidance.
3. Ongoing Education — Interest in webinars, workshops and forums shows a desire for structured, interactive learning beyond open enrollment periods.
4. Access to Experts — Employees value speaking with knowledgeable professionals who offer patient, empathetic support to help them make confident decisions.
5. Multichannel Communication — A variety of formats (FAQs, brochures, videos, online portals, and email updates) helps meet different learning styles and preferences.

Overall, perceived value is linked to employee engagement with benefits. When employees see a benefit as meaningful and relevant, they’re far more likely to invest time in understanding it.

To foster deeper engagement, benefits communication must move beyond passive information delivery and actively build value and expand true literacy. This means clearer communication, personalized support, and ongoing education that connects benefits to employees’ real-life needs and priorities. Engagement isn’t just about awareness; it is about helping employees connect personally and meaningfully with the coverage offered.

About the Research

LIMRA surveyed just over 1,500 consumers who are employed either full- or part-time, excluding self- employed workers. The survey was conducted in July 2025 as part of LIMRA’s U.S. Consumer Sentiment Study.

The U.S. Consumer Sentiment Study is a quarterly online survey of 3,000 consumers aged 18 and older. The sample is targeted and weighted to be representative of the general population of U.S. adults based on age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, employment, and region, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Read the full report.

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