Can Great West Life deduct the child benefit portion of my CPP disability benefit from my long term disability payments?
Possibly yes.
Disability insurance companies are allowed to deduct children’s CPP benefits if the insurance policy states in clear language that they are able to do so. If the insurance policy only mentions CPP disability benefits in general, then they can’t deduct the children’s payments. The words “children’s payments are deductible” or something like that has to be written in the policy.
Many people, including me, find this unfair. There were class action lawsuits years ago over this and the courts ended up ruling that insurance companies can deduct Children’s CPP benefits as long as that is very clearly stated in the insurance Policy in question.