Is Chronic Pain A Disability In Canada?
Are you among the 19% of people in Canada living with Chronic Pain that severely affects your quality of life? Beyond the medical aspect of diagnosing and treating chronic pain, you might be wondering what benefits and support exist to help you cope with this debilitating condition. Before covering the long term disability insurance benefits you might qualify for and how to build a winning claim, let’s examine the different chronic pain conditions and how they relate to long-term disability.
How do you define chronic pain?
Being a symptom of several different conditions or illnesses, chronic pain is an ongoing or recurrent pain that lasts longer than the usual time it takes for an acute illness or injury to heal, typically more than three to six months. At that stage, one experiences Chronic Pain Syndrome, or “CPS”.
What Part of the Body is Impacted?
Chronic pain may manifest itself in many areas of the body, including:
- Back
- Head
- Joints
- Muscle
- Nerves
While the cause of chronic pain may be directly related to an injury or illness, it might also be unknown.
Other conditions or medical illnesses that can lead to Chronic Pain Syndrome include:
- Injuries resulting from an accident or trauma
- Sports related injuries
- Back injuries or strain
- Spinal disorders
- Arthritis and other joint conditions
- Multiple sclerosis
- Chronic illnesses like cancer and lupus
- Somatoform disorders, a.k.a. SSD or Somatic Symptom Disorder
- Fibromyalgia
- Crohn’s disease
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Nerve conditions and nerve damage
- Headaches and migraines
- Shingles and other bacteria or viral infections
- Arachnoiditis
- Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a.k.a. reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD)
If you are able to prove how chronic pain prevents you from working, you could qualify for one or both of the following benefits in Canada:
- Canada Pension Plan – CPP Disability Benefits: you can apply for disability benefits from your Canada Pension Plan as you would apply for other long-term disabling conditions.
- LTD Benefits from Private Insurance: you may be able to claim benefits if you are covered under such disability insurance policies through your employer, or as part of a group coverage health insurance plan. Like other disorders, you will need to make your case for total disability to access long-term disability benefits usually after the initial short-term benefits end.
Applying for and securing long-term disability benefits for chronic pain can be an exhausting and challenging process. It’s important to apply as soon as you can, and making sure the application is as complete as possible.
Chronic pain is one of several “invisible disability” disorders. As such, proving your claim is especially difficult, as you first need to prove that you are actually suffering from the condition, as well as prove “total disability”, as defined by your long-term disability insurance policy, i.e. your inability to work in your own occupation or any occupation.
After your application or appeal has been denied, seeking out an experienced disability lawyer (or attorney) in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) should be your next step. This process requires a lawyer to consult and advocate for you. He or she will assess, examine, and evaluate your complex situation in order to build a plan on how to secure or recover your long-term disability benefits. This step includes looking at the reasons given by the insurer for denying your claim (which may have been filed by an unqualified person who didn’t properly document the injury).
A lawyer with specialized disability law knowledge and appeal expertise is often required for representation at a hearing. Before this, you may need to submit or file your complete medical records. If the lawyer’s handled many cases involving chronic pain disorders, such as fibromyalgia or arthritis, or a severe back injury, they will know what critical documentation needs to be gathered and what steps to take to build a successful case. The condition you suffer from is likely severe, persistent, and debilitating, possibly making you permanently or totally disabled.
To qualify for benefits, your lawyer will argue that the insurer must approve your claim to the judge. The legal strategy will be medically and legally documented to prove your eligibility.
In our 40+ years of experience, it’s our experience that insurance companies don’t take you seriously until you retain a reputable disability lawyer with a proven track record of success. They will negotiate a fair settlement, challenge the insurer’s decision, and have strong client advocacy strength.
What You Need
to Do Next
Insurance companies routinely deny long-term disability claims for chronic pain. Most people will not challenge the denial – often because they feel powerless. Do not give up hope. If your claim has been denied or your benefits cut-off, you need to consult an experienced disability lawyer who can help recover your benefits with the right strategy.
The seasoned disability lawyers at HIMPRO have helped many other people suffering from chronic pain in Ontario recover their LTD benefits after a denial or termination of benefits. They can do this for you as well.
Schedule a free consultation with our team today, so we can start examining your situation and come up with a plan to recover your benefits as quickly as possible.
Why Choose HIMPRO?
Himelfarb Proszanski’s disability team has a strong reputation of successfully handling disability claims in Ontario. Some major local law firms refer us their client’s disability cases. Our track record of successfully handling 97.5% of denied disability claims proves that insurance companies take us seriously.
We provide a combined century of trial experience which has led to the successful settlement of over 10,000 cases with combined settlement value in excess of 3/4 billion dollars. And finally, we’re the only firm to offer you. And finally, we’re the only firm to offer you the HIMPRO Advantage™.
Based on almost 30 years of legal expertise and handling over 5,000 disability cases, the Disability team at HIMPRO knows how to handle the different strategies the Insurance companies use to deny or delay the payment of your LTD Disability benefits for years. Our in-depth knowledge of the Disability Claim legal process in Ontario has led to an impressive track record: a 97.5% success rate handling disability claims.
Insurance companies know our reputation and don’t want to go up against us in court. We’ve really earned the respect of the insurance industry. Our team, led by David Himelfarb, has over 100 combined years of hard fought insurance and litigation experience, obtaining significant judgments for our client’s disability cases. We have been recognized by Best Lawyers and have the highest rating, AV Preeminent, from Martindale-Hubbell. We have sued and challenged everybody there is, at every major insurance company, over the last 30 years. That has certainly earned us the respect of their general counsel, their national trial counsel, and their defense counsel.
Trying to defend your rights to receive disability benefits and engaging in a legal case can be intimidating and stressful, on top of the disability issue itself. Our team fully understands this and will support you from the start. From our first contact, our immediate goal is to relieve the stress you and your family are experiencing due to a denial by the insurance company. We also understand you want us to be responsive to your enquiries and be kept up to date along the process. For us, you are NOT a number, and we will treat you with full respect for your person and situation, while providing the best legal representation possible.
If English is not your first language, we provide professional translators to assist you in this process, which will limit the stress due to language barriers.
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