| Issue: |
Sub-Issue 1: |
Sub-Issue 2: |
Sub-Issue 3: |
| earnings |
wage-loss indemnity |
group plan |
|
Summary:
The claimant filed an application for sickness benefits. His claim was approved for the maximum 15 weeks of sickness benefits. Afterwards, the claimant advised the Commission that he received long term disability benefits from Health Insurance through his employer. The Commission advised the claimant that the payments were considered to be earnings and it allocated them. In accordance with EIR 35(2)(c), amounts which are payable to a claimant under a group wage-loss indemnity plan are considered to be earnings for benefit purposes. A sickness or disability wage-loss indemnity plan is not a group plan if it meets the 6 criteria's listed in 35(8) of the EIR. The jurisprudence is clear that all of these conditions must be satisfied in order for a disability wage-loss indemnity plan to be exempt from earnings
