SA v Minister of Employment and Social Development

Social Security Tribunal

Our client is awarded Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits after our firm successfully overturned the Minister of Employment and Social Development’s decision to deny our client’s application.

Our client suffered from chronic long-term neck and right shoulder pain due to a workplace accident in 2008. While she worked until 2017, her pain symptoms worsened, forcing her to undergo spinal fusion surgery in 2018. Her condition did not improve much and she could not return to work.

Our client applied for Canada Pension Plan (CPP) disability pension benefits in February 2019. The Minister denied her application. We appealed her denial to the Social Security Tribunal.

The Tribunal agreed with our position and found that our client was entitled to CPP disability benefits. The Tribunal accepted that our client suffered from chronic pain syndrome which not only affected her ability to work, but also impacted her ability to do household chores, prepare meals, run errands, shower and dress. After her spinal fusion surgery, our client went for a chronic pain assessment which found that our client met the criteria for chronic pain syndrome and that her physical capacity was not enough to pursue any type of work. In addition, our client followed all medical advice, including surgery, physical therapy, various medications, psychology counselling and more.

The Tribunal noted that although our client could do some housekeeping activities, she required assistance from family members, would move at a very slow pace, and experience significant fatigue.

Lastly, the Tribunal also considered that our client’s background in making its decision. While she was only 43 at the time of the hearing, her first language was Punjabi and she struggled with speaking or reading English. Second, our client only worked in manual labour jobs which did not require English or administrative skills. She worked physically demanding jobs and despite her physical pain, she attempted to push through for years out of a financial obligation to her family and children.

As such, the Tribunal accepted our position that our client did not have other marketable skills to do less strenuous administrative type of work because she only had experience in manual labour.

Read the decision here.

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