Disability benefit

[LGR]

My Canadian Citizen Wife (currently living here in UK) is diagnosed with - and receiving benefit for - ME ( Myalgic Encephalopathy or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
I am British and applying for Ca residency under spousal sponsorship.

Our question is, when we move to Canada, how easy or difficult will it be for my Wife to have her UK diagnosis accepted and to claim any disability benefit?

Her Provincial health card has expired during her 12 years living in the UK so we cant get to talk with the health services.

Any help would be really appreciated

 

[angelbrat]

Stay in the UK if you want decent benefits.....

Whether she qualifies for not, the maximum claim a month, is not even close to what she gets in the UK a WEEK!

 

[toby]

Would the better health care in the UK help explain why their tax rates are so high?

 

[LGR]

Wow are the rates that much different?

 

[Leon]

According to http://www.seniors.alberta.ca/aish/ the disability payments in Alberta are $1,188 a month now. They also seem dependent on the husbands income, see http://www.seniors.alberta.ca/aish/tipsheets/EmploymentIncome.pdf

 

[LGR]

Thanks for that. In fact she gets around half of that here in UK. We're going to Nova Scotia so not sure what their rates are

Our main problem is that we don't know if ME/CFS is recognised as a disability, and if it is will she have to go the whole diagnosis thing again...it took 2 years here.

 

[Leon]

Yes but in AB it is also dependent on the husbands income so if you make too much money, she might get nothing. I have been googling NS for you. I found their welfare program here: http://gov.ns.ca/coms/employment/income_assistance/index.html but surely there is also another program for disability. Welfare is more for people who are able to work but don't.

 

[scylla]

LGR -

I would assume that she will have to be re-diagnosed by a Canadian doctor to qualify for disability. I don't think the government will allow someone to go on medical disability without an assessment from a doctor here.

Good luck!

 

[LGR]

Thanks a lot, you've been very helpful.