My Mom(62yo) has been receiving Early CPP Retirement Pension since December 2018 while still working. She’s been a patient at the Lung Disease Clinic at Toronto General since 2016. They decided to start her on medication at her last appointment in March 2019, and she started taking the medication in April. That’s also when she started to seriously consider going on disability.
The EI Sickness Benefits page suggests that the CPP Retirement Pension is deducted from EI Benefits but the CPP-D is not.
Reading the CPP-D Benefit page, my understanding is that there are 2 options depending on if/how long one has received a CPP Retirement Pension.
There’s the “CPP Disability Pension”(CPP-D) if
- received CPP Retirement Pension for less than 15 months at time of application
- have been deemed to be disabled before the effective date of your retirement pension
Otherwise, one might qualify for the “CPP Post-Retirement Disability Benefit”(CPP-PRDB).
CPP-D is described as a basic monthly fixed amount($485.20) plus an amount based on how much you contributed to the CPP to a maximum monthly amount of $1335.80. The CPP-PRDB is described as the flat rate component of CPP-D, I’m assuming paid on top of the CPP Retirement Pension. What is the actual likely difference in the total amount received in these two scenarios?
Approval for CPP-D also requires you pay back any CPP Retirement Pension already received, which is most likely just deducted from your first CPP-D payment. It seems there was also an option for my Mom to cancel her CPP Retirement Pension up to six months after it started, which would require paying back all the payments she received since December 2018. I guess it’s too late for that, and it may not have been financially feasible for us anyway.
I’ll admit, I’m a little pissed at how needlessly complicated this all seems. But anyways, just looking for some clarification/advice. Are my Mom’s chances of getting approved for CPP-D too low? Obviously it’s been less than 15 months since her CPP Retirement Pension started, but it’s that second requirement that’s nagging me: “have been deemed to be disabled before the effective date of your retirement pension.” Would trying to cancel her CPP Retirement Pension now (if possible), and then applying for CPP-D improve her chances?
If I am expecting my Mom to get approved for CPP-PRDB and not CPP-D, should we still consider cancelling her CPP Retirement Pension? Aren’t those payments being somewhat wasted, as they’re going to be deducted from her EI Sickness Benefits?
Finally, if one is hoping to get approved for CPP-D, would they report their CPP Retirement Pension on in their EI Reports, even though they’ll have to pay it back if they are approved for CPP-D?
Thanks in advance.