Denied Disability Benefits? Next Steps.

In Ontario, there are two major programs that offer financial aid for disabled individuals:

• Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), and
• Canada Pension Plan Disability (CPP-D)

Specific next steps depend on which type of disability benefits program you applied for. To this end, please click above to learn more. In general, however, if you were denied disability benefits, the next steps are:

1. Request a review of the decision, providing legal and other arguments to support your case and additional medical information that may be available.
2. If that doesn’t work, appeal the decision. ODSP appeals go to the Social Benefits Tribunal, and CPP-D appeals go to the Social Security Tribunal.
3. The Tribunal would then schedule a hearing of your appeal.
4. Then, you may need to forward additional arguments and medical information to the tribunal for consideration. You surely must do that within a certain time before the hearing date.
5. The Tribunal holds the hearing, after which the Tribunal issues its decision.

How We Help with Your Appeal

In general, in both the ODSP and CPP-D appeals, to be successful, we need to:

1. Show that you meet the legal definition of a disabled individual as the particular disability program prescribes it.
2. Provide medical information to support your disability claim.

To this end, the role of our paralegal services in helping you appeal your ODSP or CPP-D decision is to:

• Analyze your original application and decision of the disability program to understand the specific reasons why you were denied disability benefits.
• Analyze your medical situation, communicate with your doctors, and suggest specialists for you to see to obtain strong medical evidence of your condition(s)
• Request specific medical information we need from your doctors
• Prepare a submission to combine all the medical data we gathered with legal arguments to show the Tribunal that you meet the definition of a disabled person and, finally
• Represent you at the disability appeal hearing, and help guide you through the role of a witness

We have had great success with appeals from denying disability benefits under both the ODSP and CPP programs. Oftentimes, our clients are granted the disability benefits they deserve even without hearing, based only on our submission. Please contact us for an evaluation of your case.

Additional Resources

• Browse our blog on the topic of disability benefit appeals
• See our clients’ testimonials about our disability benefit paralegal services, and, finally,
• Browse our disability benefit FAQs.