Great-West Life Disability Insurance Reviews

I don't know what is up with this company, I filed a short term disability claim but it seems like they do everything in their power to avoid paying you. I had to call maybe 50 times to get somebody to review my file, and even after several months, I haven't received a penny! Please avoid this company, lucky for me it was only a short term disability and I was able to withstand the damage.

I've been on LTD disabled Insurance through work for 20 years - 1st with London Life then GWL bought them...I think my policy may have changed then... I've told GWL with every request they send me, exactly what my monthly CPP income was.. then I got CPP survivor benefit added when the husband died ... and they were notified then, and my disability payments never were reduced. OK... I figured I am allowed to keep CPP survivor benefit.. as I've always told them in everything they requested that I've "this total Includes CPP Survivor benefit" I'm told now... there IS no allowance for inflation. Every extra penny CPP gives me including what my Husband wanted me to have is deducted and I am ONLY allowed to make $800 month for life...HOW CAN ANYONE LIVE ON $800 MONTHLY for life in this era ?? Now GWL wants to do a review of past CPP payments as they say they overpaid me.... even Ontario disability pays $1,130 mo to their clients... However.. it was GWL fault their workers never read or followed up on what I've been sending them for over 7 years... IF there was an issue... someone on their end should have caught it years ago... Now they want $30.000 + paid back as overpayments of 7 years... and I don't even make anything close to what government assistance pays their ODSP clients.. and housing wants 33 % of income... If one can get that... This is their fault by not reading what I've been sending them all these years, and now want to come after me for them not doing their job right... I've had 6 different GWL caseworkers in past 8 years...who always approved my file because of what honesty I've stated... How can they make ME responsible for them dropping the ball??? I don't have the money to repay this amount :-( I guess I need a lawyer...

Dealing with GWL on a disability claim for my wife has been completely abhorrent. As others have noted, if they can find ANY reason to deny the claim, they will. We have in writing from them that while her doctors may consider her unable to work, they don't agree (without justification given) so go back to work. Despite our request to be seen by a doctor of their choosing, they declined and stuck with their decision on appeal. If your employer defaults to their decision, as he does, then you are stuck with the employer demanding that she return to work despite doctors instructions she can't. The sad irony in this is she is paying for this 'coverage'. The sad footnote is every health care provider we have dealt with, has had nothing good to say about patient experiences with GWL.

I've been off work for 5 months, my EI ran out in April, it is now the end of May. They told me complete lies about waiting for my employer to respond about my income to find out they didn't actually reach out until May 23rd. I've called a few times a week and they kept giving me the same excuse while talking down to me as if I'm bothering them to do their job. Now the person who handled my claim is away and will call me next week. I've been told next week for 4 weeks. This is completely unprofessional, you can't seem to get through to anyone in charge. I'm a single mother, having health issues, no other income. This is insurance I pay for and they treat me like I'm working for them. I have not been able to speak to one person who has been polite or understanding during this whole process. This is completely unprofessional...

I am on the short term disability from my workplace and they work with the Great-West. I'm already on a 70% reduced coverage and they made me pay for the 150$ form they provide for the doctor to fill in. On top of that, there are 7 days waiting period without pay, if you don't have sick days you're pretty much in trouble. The doctor asked for 4 weeks no work, Great-West reduced it to 2 and a half. Every time you make a claim or a quote, they always refuse it or ask for more information. Everything to make you give up. The staff on the phone won't accept criticism and will argue with me.

I had recently been put on a short term leave from my job due to a pregnancy. I work in a highly dangerous environment with violent clients. Shortly after being put on leave I had a miscarriage. My leave was supposed to be 7 weeks according to my doctor's notes. I had been upfront and shared all information regarding every appointment to GWL and was happy to supply them with any further medical notes they needed. I was told by my GWL caseworker that I no longer qualified for a short term leave because my pregnancy being why I was off in the first place. I explained that I was still having complications and that my doctor insisted I needed to take the full 7 weeks. I was also told I didn’t qualify anymore because I was able to return to my job and complete 60% of my work. Which I found laughable because if I’m anything less than 100% at this job I put everybody at risk. I went back to my doctor and explained what was happening and he said I am the physician and the medical professional here and I believe you need the full 7 weeks. At this time I call my caseworker who tells me I’ve been cut off from my benefits as of last week. She said she had tried calling and leaving me a voice mail but there are no records of either on my phone. So glad I won’t be having to deal with this company again

Paid into the LTD program for over a year. Drunk driver hits me on my way to work. I am now suffering from chronic headaches and migraines and vision problems. Submitted a request for LTD in October 2018 and it's half-way in January 2019 and it's still "pending medical approval from our consultants"? If you send ANY document to your claims adjuster, you are now in a mandatory two-week queue prior to your claims adjuster even looking at it. This includes an attached document that is REQUIRED to be sent. GWL is so reluctant on giving out money but so easy to take your monthly LTD payments by you and your coworkers. They don't care about your financial situation or even remotely show compassion towards your disability. They treat you like criminals. With 20-20 Hindsight, I would strongly discourage any company from joining GWL's poor service. Scroll up, Scroll down. The same thing I wrote has been mentioned over a hundred times and nothing has changed.

Great-West Life does not care if you are ill. My experience with them has been horrible. There is no credibility nor transparency. Their customer service is absolutely horrid.

If you have a choice, stay away from this company. They will do anything to not pay your claims. i.e. multiple short-term disability claims of my colleagues have been delayed in payment for months after their disability period. Cancer medication claims have been ignored over and over again. One of my colleague's husband passed away more than 6 months ago and there are still no payments. You can imagine the financial stress this creates. For myself, basically, every claim in the region of 100 $ + (over one hundred) is "randomly" selected for audit half the time then ignored after successful completion of the audit. The customer support line phone always has a busy tone. You simply cannot reach them. The online written requests get no answer. If you escalate to your company administrator, they will make statements that they tried to call you three times to clarify. They will state that you as a customer ignored them and therefore they do not pay. I can go on and on with these stories... Overall, this is a full-on fraud company.