Disabled Woman's Death Prompts Government to Accept Her Disability Application

Getting disability status in BC is such a huge uphill battle that even the danger of death may not be enough to qualify.



A disabled woman, whose family does not want identified for fear of retaliation, has died in Victoria while waiting for her disability application to go through.

The woman has had a disability her whole life, but was only able to be diagnosed last year, when she paid a private specialist several thousands of dollars to assess her. The specialist had no problem filling out the government applications, for another substantial nominal fee. The woman only had to starve herself for a couple more months to pay the additional fees. The government refused to pay any of the costs of her disability assessment.

Once she finally had all the disability applications filled out, she sent them in to the government and waited for 8 months. She attempted to contact the government about the application, but wasn't able to because the government was installing a new computer system and their calls were dropping. The government later blamed delays on her for her "lack of communication".

She finally received a letter back from the government, after waiting for a year, stating that she wasn't eligible for disability status because, although she had a heart condition, food allergies, deformed legs, deafness, chronic pain and a mental disability, she could still move her fingers and, therefore, work. The government proceeded to demand her to find work and get her out of welfare. She then tried to file an appeal.

The woman finally died from complications of her heart condition from overworking at McDonald's to pay not only for the ridiculous cost of living, but also for her natural medicines that actually work rather then masking her health problems and creating additional complications. The medicines that actually work to manage her health problems were not covered by the government's medical system.

Her death quickly prompted the government to accept her disability status, as the government considers dead applicants disabled enough to qualify for benefits.

"It is a great situation because, in the end, she got the disability status she wanted and, because she is now dead, it won't cost us a dime to give her disability benefits, so we can save that money we would be wasting on her, increase our salaries and go on more vacations! Everyone wins!" said a government spokesman.