Disability Tax Credit

[paul m]

Hello Uni. Thx for your comments. You mention a possible retro active claim. What follows is not intended to disuade you or anyone else from filing a back claim. I'm just pointing out some of the difficulties involved. Take Care. paul m

Hello All In regards to retroactive disability claims they are exceedingly hard to get if you were working during those years. There are some exceptions, primarily if you were blind or confined to a wheel chair, and still continued to work . Having Kidney dialysis would be another illness where you could work and still collect the DTC. However the area that most of us would qualify under is known as "Mental functions necessary for everyday life". It is very difficult to prove that we are lacking those if we held a job, lived on our own and generally did our own banking and paid bills without the help or close supervision of someone else.


In general the DTC was originially meant to compensate those who had extra costs during their long term illnesses. Over the years that definition gotten a little fuzzy and very open to interpretation as anybody with a long term illness has extra expenses. Plus of course the Gov't likes to muck around and make simple things, difficult.

There are numerous companies around right now who advertise, that for a fee, they will get you back credits and generally they do in the short run. However it is not unknown for the Gov't to later determine that you didn't quailify and to ask for there money back. (more than a few of these companies have been shysters). There is no reason to use an outside company the forms are not that difficult.

If you do decide to file a claim for back credits the following site has the needed info http://www.taxspecialistgroup.ca/dis...ent/faq_en.htm. The forms are all down loadable. You might want to ck with your doc as well and find out how much he/she is going to charge you to go through your back records. Take Care. paul m

[uni]

Thanks muchly for the information Paul, especially the link. How do you find all this stuff?!

[paul m]

Hello Uni. How do I find all of this stuff? Well the really hard part was learning how to think like a computer programer and figuring out how they hide things on the internet in the first place. However my brain is already wired a little weird, so the switch wasn't really all that hard. Take Care. paul m

[uni]

Weird wiring - weawwy wonderful - you wucky wascal

[nunavutlight]

Sunlife disability rules.....

Welcome to the forum Nunavutlight! Thanks for posting on a subject that is so confusing for so many people (myself included). I'll be interested in hearing how you and your son make out, and wish you the best of luck.
.

Hi all who have helped, This is for your database of info, Paul! It took months to figure out what Sunlife's discouraging criteria for insurance eligibility are. They are below. It shows their complete lack of understanding of depression. Try not to laugh!

Guidelines For Claims Handling of Adult Disabled Dependents Depression Currently under treatment for this disorder, with one or more of the following traits –

· History of suicide attempt within the past 5 years
· History of hospitalization for this impairment within the past 2 years
· History of electroconvulsive therapy
· Documented evidence of other associated medical problems requiring treatment
within the past two years, such as behavioral problems, substance abuse or dependence,
alcohol abuse or dependence, eating disorder.

Most people with depression who are diagnosed and treated early enough with medication and therapy (as my son has been) and have family support, have not been hospitalized, not turned to street drugs or alcohol, or attempted suicide, not raged around the house breaking up furniture. The other conditions are irrelevant because electro-convulsive shock therapy is almost never used for this type of depression and eating disorders are an independent psychiatric condition usually unrelated to depression. There is nothing that my son's doctor can write to (honestly) make him fit into these categories - he has said so. Therefore we are stuck. We paid for his insurance for 20+ years before we needed anything - he was always very healthy. Now we need it to support the therapy to help my son recover and become a contributing member of society, SunLife is not there to help.

I do, however, appreciate the warmth and support from this group and shall continue to fight my personal fight for equal rights for mental and physical illness. I have been so impressed by people like speed skater Clara Hughes honest personal campaign. I cried when I heard her on the radio.

Thank you all again for trying to help

[paul m]

Hello nunavutlight. It can be very discouraging to deal with insurance companies and sometimes the gov't too.Somewhere along the line I posted a link to the MDAO guide to disabiltiy insurance. I am reposting it here. I know that the law firm that presented this guide is in Ontario, but the laws are similiar.

You may need to get a lawyer as the one thing that I have learned is that the insurance companies interptation is not always right. Take Care. paul m

http://www.mooddisorders.ca/guide/guide-to-long-term-disability

[astronaut]

Wow, that is quite the statement from Sunlife about what constitutes a depression that is worth health coverage. What a backwards
way of looking at a disorder! Thanks for sharing this information, nunavutlight.

In the long run it
is actually cheaper to find and treat depression early before all those other things start happening i.e. hospitalization, alcoholism,
drug abuse, suicide attempts, etc.

astronaut

[nunavutlight]

Wow, that is quite the statement from Sunlife about what constitutes a depression that is worth health coverage. What a backwards way of looking at a disorder! Thanks for sharing this information, nunavutlight.

In the long run it is actually cheaper to find and treat depression early before all those other things start happening i.e. hospitalization, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide attempts, etc.

astronaut

Indeed. But SunLife asks themselves: "cheaper for whom?" It is certainly cheaper for society as a whole to treat immediately and adequately, but if SunLife doesn't have to pay, then it is in their best interests to retain these regressive criteria. Quite an eye-opener. The multiply affected folk living and sleeping on the streets are society's failure to care - and some of them may have begun as insurance company refusals... In the bigger ideal picture, if therapy was paid for adequately by government, via our taxes, then insurance companies would be out of the loop.

Paul: yes, it is a balance between expense of drugs/therapy and expense of lawyer.... Thanks for your link. I've followed it in the past and found it incredibly helpful.

[paul m]

Hello nunavutlight. I can appreciate the problems trying to decide what to do. I agree that everything is so expensive and those expenses can really influence our decisions.

I can only talk about my own case with any certainity. I didn't get a lawyer because I couldn't afford one and I thought that they wouldn't do anything for me anyways.

In hindsight I would have been dead certain to win, but instead I took a small payout from the company. Due to my mistake I'm short about 350 grand and counting.

Of course hind sight is 20-20 and at the time the companies offer looked pretty attractive. Take Care. paul m

[Sweetest1]

Sunlife is my LTD carrier. I've been on LTD for about 3 years now. They required TONS of paperwork from my pdoc over and over again, but in the end had to grant my benefits. I was judged under a different criteria though, because I have bipolar 1 disorder and not depression. (although I'm very depressed right now...)

[nunavutlight]

Sunlife is my LTD carrier. I've been on LTD for about 3 years now. They required TONS of paperwork from my pdoc over and over again, but in the end had to grant my benefits. I was judged under a different criteria though, because I have bipolar 1 disorder and not depression. (although I'm very depressed right now...)

Interesting. It is probably easier to make the case for a bipolar disorder - certainly my doctor seems to think so. I'm sorry that you had to fight for this but very glad you succeeded. Chipping away at the mountain!

[paul m]

Hello nunavutlight. I would have to say that your doctor is wrong in his assumption. There are many levels of bipolar and some people work quite easily even though they have bipolar.

Many of us were in fact incorrectly diagnosed with depression for many years prior to being diagnosed with bipolar( I know I was).

However one of the areas allowed by sun life was "behavioral problems" . While this is commonly thought of as a childrens problem associated with being wild or unruly that is not the only items that behavioral problems are associated with.

Behavioral problems can be as simple as a child or adult having difficulty making and keeping friends or the inability to focus attention for long. Both items common amongst people with depression

I have listed a website that provides a long list of symptoms that are considered behavioural symptoms. Take Care. paul m

http://www.localhealth.com/article/behavioral-symptoms/symptoms

[nunavutlight]

Nice site. thx Paul!

[uni]

The multiply affected folk living and sleeping on the streets are society's failure to care - and some of them may have begun as insurance company refusals..

I have no doubt that is true, Nunavutlight, and it is so sad