Not sure what I should do

Hello,

I’m not sure where to start so I guess I’ll start at the beginning.

So I’ve always had some health/tummy issues which were always diagnosed as anxiety, so I took a couple of years and lived/worked abroad to try and kind of de-stress. However last June I got suddenly really sick while in the UK. Turns out I have Crohn’s disease. Anyways, covid hits jobs are lost and I’m back in Canada (BC) I get a new easy job in hospitality while I acclimatize to being back in Canada and working since my diagnosis. It’s been extremely difficult to manage working with this disease. Forward to a few months ago and I’ve completely stopped working due to medical reasons which are worsening rapidly. I’ve got letters from my GP for extended time off. But I haven’t made money in a few weeks since I’m no longer working. I’ve applied for bc employment assistance, CPPD, disability tax credit, and EI sickness benefit. I haven’t heard anything back from anyone as of now. Is there anything else I can do?

Also my employer keeps asking me if I’m going to quit and that my leadership role will be replaced which is scary because I don’t know if that will effect my benefits?

Honestly I will never be able to commit to someone else’s working rota going forward.

I’ve been going to the food bank this month but I will have to borrow money from friends to make rent.

Thank you kindly for your help

:cherry_blossom:

2 Likes

Don’t quit. Never quit.
Say your return is unknown at this time.
Do you have STD (Short Term Disability) and LTD (Long Term Disability) coverage through your employer?
Get a copy of your benefits booklet from your employer if you don’t have it.

Your extended health benefits from work will be lost if you lose the employment.

The first thing is to find out if you have disability coverage through work and apply for that.

3 Likes

Never quit. As jammer mentioned, see if your work offers you disability benefits. If it is a unionized job there may be some.

EI sickness (which you applied for) will be your quickest option. It will get money into your pocket fast. That will last, I think, about 4 months. During that time you need to apply for provincial disability benefits in BC because CPP disability will take a long time likely.

Provincial disability in BC only pays around $1200 a month I think (Dont quote me, it’s around there). So you will need to figure out how you will live off that amount. I don’t think anyone can live off such a low amount. You are allowed to work a little bit before it is clawed back.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Best wishes.

2 Likes

You want to keep extended health benefits as long as you can.
Some employers never lay off employees on an approved disability claim, some do.