How to Go on Employment Sickness or Disability in Canada
Is your newly diagnosed chronic illness so bad that you can't work? You're going to need to get onto medical EI so you can get some financial income back to survive. I think the proper term is called Employment Sickness Benefit or EI Sickness Benefit.
Since I haven't been working for months, you're probably how I'm surviving. It is HARD! I read about IC and chronic UTI patients still working and taking a lot of bathroom breaks and drinking loads of water at work. I just can't do that. I really can't. Not only that, my bladder pain worsened to the point that I required a walking cane on June 14th. It was so bad I was hobbling and at times now, my family and I were discussing on putting me in a wheelchair. Well, now that I got my DNA sequencing tests, let's hope I never come to that point of being in a wheelchair!
So I didn't know I could apply for Employment Sickness for the months that I missed work from March until now and for on-going until I heal. I don't know why nobody told me this. I also wasn't aware of it, because I've never been incapacitated to work before. I was always working since I was in my teens, so this was all new to me.
1) Register for a Service Canada Account online
2) It's going to ask you if you have an Access Code. I didn't have one; I had to wait for mine to come to me in the mailbox. It took about 2 weeks.
3) While you're waiting for your code to come in the mail, get your Record of Employment (ROE) from you employer and/or previous employer(s). You can get them to send it directly to Service Canada, and/or to your email. One of my employers sent it directly to Service Canada, and the other sent it to both me and Service Canada. You can also view your ROEs online after you get your access code.
3) When you get your access code in the mail, you register online at the link I posted at #1 and follow all the instructions.
4) I downloaded a form here called a Medical certificate for my urologist and 2 of my doctors to sign. It confirms your illness or incapacity to work. Even though the instructions say you do not have to provide your medical certificate to Service Canada right away, I did it all within the first 3 weeks because I wanted my case to be strong and legitimate to SC. Then I mailed all those out. You can drop it off to the nearest Service Canada location near you, but since I could barely walk, I chose to mail them to the SC head office.
5) If your medical condition is expected to be long term and prevents you from doing any type of work on a regular basis, you may be eligible for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Disability Benefits. At first, I thought I would end up applying to this part, but now that I got results back from my DNA sequencing test, I hope to start treatment soon and hope to recover in the next few months or less. I am dying to get back to a normal life, start work again, and hang out with my friends and get back to swimming and paddleboarding.