Weight of the Canada Pension Plan Disability Claim

All policies will mandate that the application for CPP disability benefits be made. The sums received, as noted elsewhere, will reduce the disability benefit.

The trial judge in an Ontario decision noted that, although the insured applied for and received Canada Pension Plan (“CPP”) disability benefits, which was acknowledged by the defence witnesses to require a more stringent test of disability than that of the “any occupation” clause in issue, that the insurer paid scant attention to this finding. ¹

The court found that although certainly not binding on the insurer or the court, it nonetheless added weight and credibility to the plaintiff’s claim.

The Supreme Court of British Columbia ² came to contrary conclusion holding that the ability of the plaintiff to persuade CPP to issue a disability pension had no impact on the result, determining that the CPP authorities “were provided with information not before me and may have applied quite a different test than that appropriate to the insurance plan at bar”.

The consequence of the CPP application is clearly not binding on a trial judge, but as noted in the Ontario decision, it would be expected to add some impetus to the claim.

One would expect that an application for such a benefit from CPP which failed, would have a negative consequence on the disability claim but there is no case law to this effect currently.