Did you know: over 1 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability.
Disability Claims Lawyer: Toronto, Ontario & GTA Region Facts
About 15% of the world’s population have significant difficulties in functioning healthily. Rates of disability are increasing due to aging, chronic health conditions, and accidents. Source: WHO.
Because disability can be hereditary, it is considered a human rights issue. Employers, insurance companies, and disability benefit agencies will need to recognize this in the near and far future. If not, the risk can be great; it allows the field of disability claims lawyers and disability benefits lawyers to allow their clients to have their say.
Disability Benefits Lawyer Concerns
Age
Between 2001 and 2006, the provincial disability rates increased in all jurisdictions. These increases ranged from a low of 1.1 percentage points in Alberta to a high of 2.9 percentage points in Nova Scotia. Again, population aging explains part of this increase. Table 3 and Chart 9 show the disability rates by province, age standardized to the 2001 age distribution. Population aging explains more of the growth in the disability rate among the Atlantic Provinces, which have experienced a more significant change in their population distribution since 2001.
Common Problems
Problems related to pain, mobility and agility affect the largest number of adults 15 years of age or older. Close to 3 million Canadian adults (approximately 11% of the total population aged 15 and over) reported one of these limitations.
Not only are these the most prevalent disabilities, many of these Canadians experience more than one of these problems. Problems related to mobility, such as walking, climbing stairs, or carrying an object a short distance, are often associated with agility problems or with pain. Approximately 70% of Canadians who reported one of these three disabilities were also affected by the other two.
Types of Disabilities
- Hearing: Difficulty hearing what is being said in a conversation with one other person, in a conversation with three or more persons, or in a telephone conversation.
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Seeing: Difficulty seeing ordinary newsprint or clearly seeing someone’s face from 4 meters away (12 feet).
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Speech: Difficulty speaking or being understood.
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Mobility: Difficulty walking half a kilometre or up and down a flight of stairs, about 12 steps without resting, moving from one room to another, carrying an object of 5 kg (10 pounds) for 10 metres (30 feet) or standing for long periods.
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Agility: Difficulty bending, dressing and undressing oneself, getting into or out of bed, cutting own toenails, using fingers to grasp or handling objects, reaching in any direction (for example, above one’s head) or cutting own food.
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Pain: Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do because of a long-term pain that is constant or reoccurs from time to time (for example, recurrent back pain).
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Learning: Difficulty learning because of a condition, such as attention problems, hyperactivity or dyslexia, whether or not the condition was diagnosed by a teacher, doctor or other health professional.
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Memory: Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do due to frequent periods of confusion or difficulty remembering things. These difficulties may be associated with Alzheimer’s disease, brain injuries or other similar conditions.
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Developmental disabilities: Cognitive limitations due to an intellectual disability or developmental disorder such as Down’s syndrome, autism or an intellectual disability caused by a lack of oxygen at birth.
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Psychological: Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do due to the presence of an emotional, psychological or psychiatric condition, such as phobias, depression, schizophrenia, drinking or drug problems.
6.6% of Canadians aged 15 and over had a severe or very severe disability. Moderate disabilities were reported by 4.1% of Canadians aged 15 and over (1,045,500 people) while 5.9% of that age group indicated a mild disability (1,492,580 people). The patterns of severity in disability were relatively unchanged for adults between 2001 and 2006.
Has your Disability Claim been Denied?
Disability lawyers can vary in price. Usually, our retainer is no more than one-third of your settlement (contact us for more details). A long term disability lawyer may be able to borrow funds in order to ensure your case is sustained. Contact us today for more information.
