ahimsa
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I think I can provide a general answer. Note, this is NOT related Gingergrrl's situation and I'm not trying to speak for her.
This is just a general answer about what little I have learned about disability insurance over the years. Note that everyone has a different situation and there are many complications that I have left out.
Many people who work have social security as their only disability insurance. If they get disabled they file with SS (social security). Getting disability benefits relies on 1) having paid into the system for long enough and recently enough and 2) providing evidence that the person is unable to work (at any kind of job, not just their most recent job).
People who are too young to have paid into the system long enough, or who were out of the workforce for too long before getting disabled (and probably other situations), cannot file for SS disability. But income/assets are not related to the amount of disability payments from SS. There is a different program that does rely on income, called SSI (Supplemental Security Income), but I don't know much about it.
A disabled person can have a partner who works, or have lots of money in the bank, or even rich friends and relatives who give them money. None of these affect the amount of the SS disability payment. The payment is based on that patient's work history, how much was paid into the system over the years.
This is one reason why going on part time hours (as opposed to a formal medical leave as part of short term or long term disability, if you have such a policy) can be very bad for people with chronic illness. It reduces the amount of taxes paid into the SS system. If this goes on for several years, and then the patient gets too sick to work at all, and must file for long term disability with SS, then their payment might be much lower than expected. The disability payment is based on those most recent years of part time hours, not the former salary.
Some people have an additional disability insurance policy on top of social security, either as part of their employee benefits or a private disability policy that they bought for themselves. As an example, a surgeon might buy a policy to cover disability in the event that something goes wrong with her hands or eyesight. She might still be able to work on some minimum wage job but her policy provides coverage if she is unable to work as a surgeon even if she is still well enough to work. And there are many kinds of these disability policies with a slew of different restrictions.
These policies usually have a clause saying that the person must file for social security disability to offset the amount that the insurance company has to pay out. The policy might promise 60% or 70% of a patient's former salary but this is a combination of what social security pays the patient and what the disability insurance company pays.
You are correct that SS disability does not pay anywhere near 70% of former salary. And the SS disability payments are not in addition to 70% of the person's salary. They make up part of the total 70% that the disability insurance company has promised to cover.
If you have not paid for a private disability insurance policy, or have disability insurance as part of your employee benefits, then this complication does not apply to you. And if you happen to have long term disability insurance as part of your employee benefits it is probably covered by ERISA laws. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for most patients to claim long term disability from any policy that is covered by ERISA laws.
I hope this makes sense.
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