Today I don’t only have Guillain Barre Syndrome to deal with but also the financial stress that comes with it. I’ve been dealing with issues with CPP Disability, EI and Social Assistance lately and quite frankly i’m disappointed with our government system. In the most difficult time of your life they abandon you. All that was going through my mind is what am I going to do. It’s not like I can go to work. I had to find help somewheres. If dealing with Guillain Barre Syndrome wasn’t enough I now have the financial stress that comes with it.
After a meeting last Friday with the nurse manager concerning perhaps Global News wanting to do a story with me she had mentioned to me about Ability New Brunswick a Non-Profit Organization. They offer assistance to people with disabilities that may be able to help. I thanked her and said I would look into it.
I looked them up on their Facebook page and messaged them. Well today I received a reply asking me to give them a call. I gave Ability New Brunswick a call and I explained the current issues i’ve been dealing with. I have a meeting scheduled on January 28th at 9:30am with Haley. Hopefully they can help or offer some guidance.
The issues I’ve been having is CPP Disability said they only received the medical report and not the actual application itself. My application started back in August. They told me I would have to resend both the medical report an application in again. They also told me that my file was closed and that there would be another another 170 day waiting period from the time they receive it. They would not reopen the file.
At this point I had no choice but to reach out to Social Assistance for help. I was 20 days shy of my disability insurance from kicking in at work as it was a new job I had started. I called them up and told them I would like to apply for Social Assistance. The lady asked me when was my last EI payment which I told her January 10th and it was for 7 weeks backtime. EI had had cut me off middle of November as they wanted more information concerning my condition, an update as sick leave benefits was 15 weeks your entitled to. Social Assistance told me that there would be a 7 week waiting period because I had received a lump sum payment from EI. On top of only being able to receive Social Assistance in like March she informs me that I was only entitled to $135 a month because I’m living at the Stan Cassidy Rehabilitation Centre. I was shocked…. Not only am I entitled to basically nothing I’m being penalized with a 7 week waiting period as a result of EI’s long processing times to update my file. The EI payment received was for money owed to me and for past bills owing not money to live on now. I could not believe what was happening.
This is the situation I’m in now. I’m fighting to get better from Guillain Barre Syndrome and now this. The financial stress I don’t need right now. This is just wrong. We pay into a system and in your most difficult time your left all alone or have to jump through hoops to get things done. Hopefully Global News will end up doing a story on how changes and improvements are needed in our Government system and programs available. In the meantime I hope Ability New Brunswick can help. Hoping the financial stress that comes with Guillain Barre Syndrome will work out. I’ll find out next week.