Manulife Disability Insurance Reviews

In 2010 I had to leave work due to serious health issues. Manulife provides the group health insurance provided by my employer. The application was correct and accurate. I received benefits for the first 4 years, after which a return to work is deemed unsuitable and they are obliged to provide benefits until the claimant is 65. They required testing at this 4 year mark by their own selected health expert and his report *supported* my claim. Despite this, I received a letter saying my benefits were being terminated as I was (miraculously) fit to return immediately to full time employment at my former job. There was no medical evidence to support this decision, quite the opposite. Further, the policy included a clause that claimants do not have to take employment that pays less than 75% of their former salary; all medical reports indicated that the type of work I could now perform without risk of triggering another episode of serious illness did not pay anywhere near 75% of my former (management) salary. The Manulife employee assigned to my file refused to acknowledge the existence of this clause in the policy. Another Manulife employee involved in the file was caught out saying one thing to me and another thing to my medical care provider in an effort to use semantics to cheat me out of my benefits. In short, he lied through his teeth. It was shocking. I had to hire a lawyer to fight their decision to cancel as it was clear anything I pointed out in my defence was being ignored. The lawyer indicated the run-around she was getting from them as she prepared the file was just short of bad faith bargaining. In the end, the unjustified cancellation was reversed - but not before I had to pay over $5,000 I couldn't afford to the lawyer (who basically made the same arguments I had) and had gone through months of intense stress that in and of itself made me more ill. If I had been unable to afford a lawyer, I would have lost my benefits, plain and simple. The truth played no part in it. I have read that disability insurers routinely cancel valid claimants as some of them will not know how to or have the stamina to fight back, and for those who do, it's much cheaper for the insurance provider to deal with an internal review of the termination decision or a court case than pay out substantial benefits to someone in their 30s or 40s 'til age 65. So is Manulife worse than other disability providers? I don't know. I wouldn't trust any of them after my experience.

Been diagnosed with 2 serious illnesses and have been declined twice for short term disability. After first decline was told by case worker I would be approved when I appealed. This did not happen. They told me if I was sick for a year I could keep working. When I said you are telling me to go against my Dr.s wishes and they said oh no were are not. We are just telling you we won't support your claim. They said just keep working , it does not matter if you get worse. Case worker is in Toronto. Scam artists. Disgusting way to treat people that pay for benefits. Have spoken to other people who have had serious illnesses and they were ordered back to work too.

What a useless insurance company. Don't even hope about collecting anything. Especially ltd insurance. They seem to deny everything.

I have been on short-term disability for over 3 months and have yet to see any money. There is always something that still needs to be done but they don't tell you about it, you just get a letter in the mail weeks later. They make you go through one representative, who is never in the office. When you call the main number, no one knows anything and they say they will get someone to call you but they don't. They sure do take their time to give a paycheck even though they make you give authorization for them to take out insurance premiums.