Tax Tips for Transplant Recipients: Neha’s Story

Neha received a kidney transplant three years after being diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). After the surgery went smoothly and her health improved, she felt both thrilled and relieved. She had been in ill health for so long that she was eager to start living her life to the fullest. However, getting back into the swing of things came with its own set of difficulties. Neha was struggling financially. Having limited income in recent months and years meant that she had dipped into her retirement savings. Her health was her priority, and she knew that the...

Long Term Disability File Closed After Kidney Transplant

Sonny was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was just 14 years old. He spent his whole life being careful, a necessity given concerns around the long-term ramifications of the disease. Despite his best efforts, by the age of 42, he started to develop diabetic nephropathy, also known as kidney disease. By this point, Sonny was a father of two kids, had a great home, and a wonderful partner in his wife, Denise. They’d built the life they’d always wanted, but now things were going to get more complicated. A mechanic, Sonny had to start making some concessions at work....

Disability Denied Due To Insufficient Impairment

Diana is a receptionist who works for a local dental clinic. She’s 37 years old and loves everything about her job. Over the course of a few weeks, she started to notice that she was more tired than normal. She had difficulty keeping up with the usual office activity and started suffering from regular headaches that would last for hours at a time, sometimes even the whole day. Eventually, she noticed that her hair was thinning. She’d wake up to strands on her pillow, and find more hair than normal coming out in her hands in the shower. She grew concerned, so she went to...

Disability & Mental Health

When we think of disabilities it’s common to jump to physical disabilities. We think of people in wheelchairs, the blind, the hearing impaired, those with cerebral palsy etc. Our minds tend to gravitate to something tangible we can quantify. But the fact is that invisible disabilities are just as common. What’s more is that physical disabilities can often lead to invisible ones, such as depression or anxiety disorders. Depression affects roughly 8% of all Canadians, and youth are particularly at risk. Part of what can make someone more susceptible to depression involves...

I Think We’re Alone Now: Surveillance and Disability Insurance

When you apply for long-term disability, the insurance companies want to be able to deny your claim or terminate your existing benefits. Ultimately, they do not want to pay you if they can avoid it. So they will try to disprove your claim or discredit you directly. There are a few different ways that a denied claim can be argued against or that existing benefits can be revoked. One such tactic is a relatively controversial one: surveillance. Surveillance is a technique that’s used in a lot of long term disability (LTD) cases. It’s often used in cases where the claimant...

The Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney diseases (CKD) is unique in many ways. Those who have never found themselves or a loved one affected by it may have many misconceptions about how the disease develops. Understanding the signs of CKD will help you be prepared for the future should you ever face this condition. CKD often presents itself slowly. Rather than the kidneys suddenly failing, the disease progresses over a long period of time – often many years. Due to this, CKD has the opportunity to be caught early on. Lifestyle shifts and medication plans can assist in slowing the...

Vacation Leads To Claim Being Denied

Ian had struggled with back pain most of his life. It was always pretty mild, but seemed to be ever present. As a result, he never spent a great deal of time exercising. An unhealthy diet in college and a smoker since the age of 20 certainly didn’t help matters, and he gradually became overweight. But for the last few years, he’d started to take better care of himself. He was going to the doctor more regularly, doing some exercises that were easy on his back, and eating more healthily. The next frontier was quitting smoking. A sales clerk at a clothing store, Ian was used...

Disability Claim Denied? Here are 3 People You Need On Your Side

As we know, disability claims do not always get approved the first time you apply. For many reasons that often seem unreasonable your claim may be denied, and you may find yourself having to fight for your disability benefits. When this happens, you’ll need to rally the troops and assemble the perfect team to help you get through that process. So who do you need on your side in a disability claim dispute?   Your Doctors A great way to improve your odds of winning the benefits you deserve is by going in with the right supporting documents, and most importantly, with...