Hey! Not So Fast!
As many of you know, I am on Long Term Disability Leave from teaching for health reasons this year. My insurance company made me apply for Canada Pension Plan Disability which is an incredibly complicated process. I filled in a 32 page booklet and sent it awhile ago.
Today I got a interesting receipt from Human Resources Canada that said:
"We have received your application dated October 25, 2006, for the Death Benefit. Unfortunately, we cannot process your application at this time for the following reasons:
(Whoa! I'm thinking, "Yeah, because I'm NOT DEAD for starters!")
It went on....
"Your questionnaire was not complete when we received it. Please provide the date requested in the highlighted area." (I'm laughing! Like the date of death perhaps?!)
You can imagine my how my sense of humour was kicking in!
"Oh crap, I AM dead! Maybe this is heaven...can't be, I'm in too much pain! I better look around for people I know just to make sure!"
They had enclosed a copy of some part of my Disability form where I didn't put a date and the control # of Sun Life for which they never even asked!
Too funny! I phoned them and got some man who had a very thick French accent and either could not speak English that well, or just didn't share my weird sense of
humour, but clearly there was no response to my jokes! I said I hoped the money would arrive before I died since I had a bit more serious shopping to do before I passed on!
I don't know how these things happen. These companies have a large number of employees and you'd think they'd get that one straight. It's the usual Bureaucratic Red Tape issues with Government we all hate I suppose.
In addition, I have to start paying for full amount of health and dental insurance which goes from $149 to $298/month and may even go retroactive to last March because my own employer had billed me as if I were working half time! I may have to cough up a lot of money soon. But it is definitely their mistake and since Payroll bills me, you'd think they'd notice I wasn't on it anymore! Yikes! I'd never realized how expensive health plans cost when my Board of Education was kicking in half the cost.
The beat goes on...it never ends....ah, well...yeah, I guess it does!
Mother of Invention, thinking that some days, the Death Benefit look a lot less complicated!
posted by Mother of Invention at 8:30 PM
24 Comments:
What a crazy experience! It is never a good thing to end up in a company's records as deceased and although you're in pain, I'm glad the company is wrong; it would be bad if you weren't here. What an interesting time dealing with that situation. So, are they going to get it corrected and pay up the insurance?
Monday, November 20, 2006
Now that was funny! Well, except for the increase in insurance premium part.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Interesting how you can be working half time while at home or, working half time while being dead! You are a miracle! But your insurance needs a little kick in the keester.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Brooksba:
Yes, I don't know if it was just a typo or maybe from reading all my health problems, they figured I'd be applying soon anyway so they'd save me the trouble! I don't find out for 4-6 months whether I'm accepted. meanwhile, Sun Life will pay what they were paying monthty all along. In the end, I might actually get more/month, but that'll just cover the insurance increase! Bummer!
Old Lady:
Good thing I have the sense of humour I do! It was great fodder for my one-liners! (And for a blog post!)
Maggie:
CPP, ya gotta love the Canadian Government! I hate dealing with crap like this!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
At least you have a sense of humor about it!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Bureaucracies don't actually exist to serve people, they are just there to follow procedures. No thinking required. If there is a small error or omission, it goes back to you.
The whole mechanism is in place to avoid doing work and accepting any form of liability.
Yes, I have a negative view of bureaucracies.
Hmmm ... your healthcare plans sounds expensive. My companie pays for mine, I only pay for it as a taxable benefit. Based on the taxes I pay, I reckon my health plan is costing the company a little over $100 per month. And I have a pretty good plan. Sofia, had the option of taking the plan were she works, but it is more expensive than mine (she has to foot the whole cost) and she gets less for it.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Colleen:
Yes, I more or less have to or it'd drive me nuts. I'm not usually patient with this kind of thing.
Richard:
It is expensive and it probably isn't as good as yours. I never even though of it when I taught full time. I sure will now. I have to stick with this plan until retirement because if I had to have a medical, it'd cost me a whole lot more!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Leave it to bureacracy....this would make a great sitcom episode or two or three........!
LOL on your comment re: flatjacks....i'm 5'9" too, which is why I call these fantasy shoes!!! Loving your menu ideas, just loving them.......!
I'm still chuckling to myself....maybe I need to post a nice flat soon, just in your honor....let me dig around in the rdg shoe box.........
cheers!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
If you can just convince them that you died and then came back to life, you might really get benefits! What is sad is just how much time it takes to undo someone's mistake on something as simple as this...
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Stupid insurance. I think they run the world.
i love you asking for the money for shopping. But i'll bet that the insurance guy has has a humorectomy that was paid for by his company as part of the job requirments.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
RDG:
Always wanted to be on a sit-com! My life is sometimes like I Love Lucy!
Oh, Fantasy shoes makes sense now! I'd love higher heels but my husband would have to be a little taller! He's only 5" 10" and he used to wear Roots negative heel shoes!
Barbara:
Yeah! Maybe the other Department in the Government can screw up my Death certificate and let it fly!
Too many people not knowing what the other does!
Meno:
Yes, stupid is right...you'd think they'd have a better grasp of the sensitive issues like that. You are probably right about the humourectomy! No rhyme or reason to the coverage sometimes.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Oh gawd. Health insurance. I think this fits right in with your poem about pain. Health insurers are such a pain in the ....
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
MoI:
as our good friend Annelisa would say "SNAP!" my husband is 5'-10" as well!!! He hates it when I stand taller than him - in public...always tells me it's a latino male thing........LOL.....this is too funny! So tell me, are you a 'boots' type of shoe girl or a nice 'mary jane'.......I think I might have just the shoe for you...
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
At least you keep up your good sense of humor and that might be the only working response to such bureaucracy. To me it seams far to complicated, but then again I'm only a Norwegian:-)
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Teri:I knew there was a good reason I posted those back to back!
RDG: That is too funny! Why couldn't we have snapped up those 6'5" football players? (I always hated that those little wee cute cheerleaders go them! I was the taleest cheerleader there ever was besides my sister!)
I used to wear Mary Janes when I was a kid, as an adult, I often wear dressy flatter black suede or leather indoor type boots with long dresses and skirts....size 11! Okay, there's a TALL order for you!
Renny: You are lucky not to know this! You have a great social program that will take care of all Norwegians, and probably without all the forms and fuss!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Wow....okay.......i've narrowed my selections down.....i think i have just the shoe for you....very elegant....couture - 'cause girl you're worth every penny of it! I did see some fleece lined mary jane's...they looked quite comfy...and some earth boots in a nice lime green (were afraid the kitties would use them as scratching posts......)no....something different for MoI...stop by on Friday - I'll post them in your honor....hope you like!! happy t-day!
-rdg
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Went to Canada with a girlfriend on vacation. She had her BC prescription filled up there and was given "expired" pills.
Haven't been back.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
The rumors have been greatly exaggerated...but I hope you're not in the computer that way. They'll make you prove your alive, probably by making you breathe on a mirror.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
So, am I talking to a ghost now?
I turn my back for a moment, and you get a death certificate, hauntings an' all?
Reminds me of Madd's rantings- she and her friend have been trying to get benefits for a long, long time now... they've got to the stage of writing to governors. I hope you get yours a lot quicker - sounds like you'll need it with the amount you have to pay out!!
Thank Goodness for the National Health Service we have here... it's a lot more fair (but there's still a lot of gripes to be had about how long you have to wait - my friend Julia was told her cancer was spreading, and she'd need an op. asap - the waiting list was 4 months!!)
Anyway, tell the cool and snappy red-dirt-kitty( :-D ) that she might be cool to say 'snap!', but it sure aint cool talking to dead folks!
:-)
...on the other hand...
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
RDG: Thanks! Custom-made Menu shoes! Wow! And yes, my felines will scratch anything like that!
Steve: You're too funny! Folks,the real reason he hasn't been back to The Great White North is that they'll hit him with a paternity suit and retroactive Deadbeat dad payments!!!
TrefP: Somehow I believe that! A lady I know got her name on a death cert. instead of her husband's and it took months for them to believe she wasn't the one who died...guess they thought she was phoning from heaven! (and E-mailing from heaven.com!)
Annelisa: You could be right..I look rather like an apparition some days!
That is a long wait for Julia to have waited. Think it'd be faster here.
Maybe Snappy RDG and I have just skipped across to the other side for a lark!
(We played Snap all the time as kids!)
It's really not our Thanksgiving...we had ours back in Oct. but thanks! (Not a turkey to be found here..they killed most of them already!) Our American blogger friends will be overindulging tomorrow!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Answering Machine:
beeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppppppppppp
Hello, dear, this is Shirley McClaine calling. Don't let this bother you. It's happened to me so many times. As it turns out, sometimes I have been dead. But, not usually. Happy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Kilroy: You are too funny! I'll take Shirley's advice and pay no attention! You must be on a high from Turkey, wine or somethin'!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Anything happening on this front yet?
Friday, December 01, 2006
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