No one ever wants to become sick or disabled. In Canada, we are lucky enough to have a national healthcare plan so if it does happen the immediate health related matters are taken care of at little or no cost, but there are plenty of other issues that a short or long term disability can impact your life and that of your family. What if your illness or an accident prevent your working. If you are a salaried employee, you will probably qualify for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, but are those sufficient to cover your real costs of living?

There are a lot of options to choose from when looking at short and long-term disability coverage. Younger employees new to the job may not see the purpose and older employees may feel the need for more comprehensive coverage. RPP Benefits can help you work through the requirements and desires of your staff, provide trusted, honest counsel to those who have questions or concerns. We will collaborate with you to come to come up with the right balance of short-term and long-term disability to appropriately balance the needs of your employees and the realities of the budget you want to respect.

Short Term Disability Benefits

The Short Term Disability benefit provides income replacement for illness or injury occurring on or off the job. Coordination with Workers Compensation benefits is standard. A wide selection of waiting periods, coverage amounts, and maximum benefit periods make the coverage easy to coordinate with a Corporate sick-leave plan or with Employment Insurance disability benefits. Premiums can be structured so that an employee’s benefit payment is tax-free income.

An Employer who provides coverage which matches or improves upon Employment Insurance (EI) disability benefits is usually able to register their plan with EI to receive a premium reduction.

Benefits are paid weekly. This coverage is meant for shorter-term illnesses or accidents which prevent an employee from working.

Generally speaking, the longest coverage period would be 17 or 26 weeks. After that point, an employee on disability would ideally transfer to Long Term Disability coverage.

Long Term Disability Benefits

Long Term Disability offers income replacement for disease or injury which would prevent an employee from working for an extended period. Benefits are usually payable to age 65 as long as the disabled employee meets the Plan’s definition of disability. Shorter plans can also be arranged if required. Several options are available, allowing the program to be tailored to your needs.

The waiting period for Long Term Disability is structured so that payments begin as soon as Short Term Disability coverage expires so that there is no gap in regular payments to the disabled employee.