I experienced extreme burnout and a traumatic event at work which led to PTSD diagnosis. I have been off work since August 2024 and received LTD benefits starting March 2024. I am in the ‘own occupation’ category for a total of two years before it moves to any occupation. It has become clear to me that I will be unable to return to my own occupation given the very specific triggers associated with it. Without revealing too much personal information or the nature of my injury, I also have very specific triggers about working for an employer or someone who has authority over me, and would like to ultimately work for myself to avoid this. I want to get on with my life, and retrain. Right now, I would have the capacity to learn for a couple of hours a day in a part time program. This would likely be supported by my medical team. In my case, learning a couple of hours a day is much different than going to work for an employer in my own occupation for a couple hours a day- it would not be possible to attend a job for an employer right now without worsening of my symptoms. What is the likelihood that I would be able to maintain my LTD benefits while attending this program to retrain. I am paying for the program myself. If I don’t have the capacity to do it, I stop. If I do, I will have a new career and ability to work for myself and ease into self employment. I want to get off LTD and be productive. We can’t financially afford to lose the LTD benefits for a year while I retrain. Is this possible? Have you heard of this being successful before? Is there anything I should be careful of navigating and looking out for when doing this? I plan on being completely up front with the case manager and my health team of course, but I need to know my chances and odds before I decide to bring this up. Thank you for this wonderful forum.
Hi, I think the only way this would be possible would be as part of a return to work program. It is as you have guessed a high risk area. I would book a consultation with Resolute Legal before doing anything.
Sorry to hear about your injury. There are so many who have been thrown under the bus and now fending for ourselves with no federal Ombusperson office or advocate. This forum is the only thing out there for discussion at this level.
DI companies include provisions for back to work such as training. But the risk is they will reduce or cut your benefits. The whole goal is to get you back to work asap - before you are ready - so they can wash their hands of paying out. It takes ocer 2 years to get to “Long duration” disability with the company I am with so they are less likely to chop you and say you are not needing benefits. They have to decide if you are a write off, reallt injured to the point they cannot pressure you back to work. If they know you are trying or volunteering there is a risk they will push you further.
If you get CPP - D then there is a more balanced approach. They never tell you about this but I found it.
Vocational Rehabilitation Program for Canada Pension Plan
Here you can retrain and they even recognize with AI that a person with a perm disability might be able to do some work. The re training is no charge and they will not cut your benefits. Also if you burn out within 2 yrs you get automatically reinstated to get your benefits.
It is literally the only program that I’ve seen that is designed to really help and not threaten, punish or create further harm and let you let you you try to build a new life.
Excellent advice Neo11. I’ve heard that once on CPP-D their support in retraining is pretty good, better than any insurance company is going to support you. I’ve no experience though, but that is what I’ve heard. In my experience, which seems to be pretty ‘normal’ , the closer I got to the 2 years date (change of definition) on LTD the more the insurance company was pushing me to go back to work. I was adament I couldn’t go back to work, so they had me do a functional assessment (FCE) as well as a psycho-vocational assessment. That gave them enough ammo to determine I can do “any” occupation and therefore ended my LTD payments. I also had a severe burn-out at work, and still have PTSD when the thought of return to work comes up.