Providing Income Support to the Ill and Injured: Decoupling Medical and Financial Distress

Item Restricted to University of Alberta Users

Communities and Collections

Usage

Author(s) / Creator(s)
- Lund, Anna Jane
SSHRC Awarded IDG 2017: Although bankruptcy should not be a side effect of sickness, many Canadians are pushed over this financial precipice by an illness or injury. Public programs, such as the federal employment insurance sickness benefit and provincial workers' compensation programs, are intended to insulate ill and injured Canadians from financial distress by providing them with replacement income. The frequency with which medical events trigger bankruptcy suggests that these programs are not fulfilling this goal; this project seeks to understand why.
This project will answer two questions:
1. What legal tests are used to determine eligibility for employment insurance sickness benefit and workers’ compensation? The workers’ compensation tests varies by province; this project focuses on Alberta law.
2. Do the tests make it more difficult for some people to access the programs because their medical conditions do not fit easily into the prevailing medical model of disease?
Date created

2017-02-01
Subjects / Keywords
Type of Item

Research Material
DOI

https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PN8XV3G