Injured in a car accident? Can’t work? What are you options for payments from ICBC and other sources.

 

ICBC may have an obligation to pay you for lost wages if you are injured in a motor vehicle accident. There, however, are a few catches:

1) Firstly ICBC is a secondary insurer. What this means is that if you have another source of income, such as extended health or employment insurance coverage, you have to exhaust those sources first before ICBC will provide you with any payments.  ICBC will top up your benefits to the regulated level, which is currently a maximum of $300.

2) You need to have been employed for 6 of the last 12 months to qualify for income benefits.

3) You need the proper medical evidence to prove your disability. This is where contacting a personal injury lawyer can be helpful. This is a crucial step in the process and once ICBC has made up their mind about an issue it can be difficult to get them to change it.

Once ICBC has granted you benefits, it does not end there. ICBC has the discretion to stop paying benefits if they decide you are not cooperating with the medical treatment they have recommended to you.  ICBC also has the right to have you appear before their own experts for the purpose of an inspection.

You may earn up to $75 on top of the $300 paid by ICBC before ICBC will begin to make deductions. $375 per week is not a lot of money to live on, particularly in cities like Vancouver or Kelowna with relatively high costs of living. I recommend that when you are injured in a motor vehicle accident you speak to a personal injury lawyer to discuss the optimal way to increase cash flow when you are disabled from work.

 

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