Administrative change to the Disability Insurance plan
Background
The DI Plan is a mandatory plan that provides long-term disability insurance benefits to eligible employees of the public service, including eligible members of certain designated groups, who become totally disabled and are unable to work.
Employees can apply for DI when their illness or disability is expected to be prolonged beyond the 13-week elimination period, or they have exhausted their sick leave balance, whichever comes later.
What has changed
Prior to this change, to complete a disability benefits application, the employee’s attending physician had to complete one of three Attending Physician Questionnaires (Musculoskeletal, Mental Health, Other Medical Conditions). To help reduce the administrative burden for attending physicians, the three questionnaires have been replaced by a single universal industry form.
This change was led by the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association and is being applied across the disability industry.
Members and attending physicians can access and download the new form by visiting Sun Life’s DI webpage.
If a claim is submitted using one of the three previous questionnaires, Sun Life will accept it, and the claim will still be assessed.
There are no changes to the Employee, Immediate Manager/Supervisor and Compensation Advisor forms. They are all still required to support the claim for disability benefits.
Reminder on how to submit a disability insurance claim
Before submitting a claim for DI, make sure you are applying to the correct insurance plan to avoid any delays in accessing your benefits. You can verify if you are a member of the DI plan by logging into MyGCPay or contacting the Pay Centre or your departmental compensation office.
For details on how to submit a claim for disability insurance, please consult Sun Life’s Employee Claim Guide.
Contact information
Chiefs of Compensation at the corporate level may contact the Employee Relations and Total Compensation Sector.
Should plan members or attending physicians have any questions or concerns about the DI claim, please contact Sun Life at 1‑800‑361‑5875.