Information for: People living with HIV

Income security

Many people living with HIV find it difficult to work. If your health status is changing from month to month, week to week or even day to day, work may not be possible for you.

Income security – a reliable and predictable source of income – is one of the biggest stresses for people living with HIV. It can have a major impact on your health and all aspects of your life. Many people must rely on health and disability benefits such as:

  • Employment Insurance (EI) Sickness benefits
  • Long term disability (LTD) and extended health benefits (vision, dental, prescription drugs, physiotherapy, etc.) provided by employee group insurance plans
  • Canadian Pension Plan Disability Program (CPP-D), and
  • Provincial Disability and Social Assistance programs.

Rules and definitions vary between programs. Your local AIDS service organizations or doctor may be able to provide you with information, help you fill out any necessary forms and explain what benefits you are entitled to.

Improving the system

Many people with HIV would like to work when they feel well. But the current system of income support may create barriers to working during periods of good health. Some of the key issues identified by people living with HIV are:

  • Lack of partial disability benefits: In practice, most policies define people as either “fully disabled” or “able to work”. If someone returns to work part-time during periods of good health, they lose all their disability income support, even though they are only working part-time.
  • Loss of extended health benefits (vision, dental, prescription drugs, physiotherapy, etc.): People fear loss of extended health benefits if they return to work, stop receiving benefits and then become ill again. If they return to work with a new employer, they also may not be eligible for benefits because they have a pre-existing condition.
  • Limits on income: Although CPP-D allows people to earn some income while on disability, the fear of losing CPP-D benefits discourages many people from working during periods of good health if it means they will be over the allowable limit for income.
  • Lack of coordination between programs: Many people need both income support and extended health benefits, especially people living with disability. Most programs provide only one or the other so a combination of programs is required. Lack of coordination between programs can make this complicated.
  • Reassessments: The need to continually prove or re-prove illness or disability is a burden for the person with HIV and the family physician who must complete the forms.

CWGHR is working on solutions to these issues through education, research and public policy through its multi-year research project focused on barriers to employment and issues of income support for people with episodic disabilities.

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