CPP Benefits Awarded to Client After Appeal

Brian Bell

Toronto Employment Lawyer Brian Bell - Pace Law Firm: I had a client come to me a while back who had been in declining health for some time. We'll call him Bill.

Prior to his disability, Bill worked some 30+ years for a large computer company. After the company went through restructuring, he was given a package.

During his entire employment period, Bill had paid into CPP. After his termination period of notice expired, his health deteriorated to such an extent that he was rendered unemployable. His issues included a broken back and a prolonged disease with disabling treatments. He recovered from the back injury enough to be mobile. When he applied to CPP Disability, he was turned down because 1) he was not currently paying CPP payments and 2) he had not made payments for 4 of the last 6 years prior to his total disability.

In fact, he was disabled well before their determination of 2008 disability year. The Board agreed.

I made application for an appeal in January, 2012. I had to determine both medically and in the course of practicality, when Bill was totally disabled. I argued that the nature of his disease was difficult to diagnose in the strict time frames established by the CPP guidelines, and in fact, he was disabled well before their determination of 2008 disability year. The Board agreed.

I'm happy to say that the subsequent award gives Bill the full retroactive period back to April 2010, with benefits starting in August 2010 after the normal waiting period.