Loss of Income and Need for Financial Support
Many of the people we spoke with suffered a loss of income because they were unable to continue working full time. Some were now unable to work at all. A few of our participants had private or work-related disability insurance that supplemented their income. However, this was the exception. Most of the people we spoke with did not have that kind of insurance. Some had applied, or were thinking of applying, for government financial assistance. Participants generally described the processes involved as complex and overwhelming.
Angela is self-employed as a cleaner. She estimates “close to $8,000 worth of income … lost” over five months. Coucoute works as a care assistant. In addition to covering basic expenses for herself and her children, she used to send money to help family members in Haiti. She prays she will get better so she can once again work overtime and earn more money. « Je vais guérir pour aller travailler pour faire des doubles et avoir de l’argent. » [I’m going to heal to go to work to do double shifts and have money.] Translation from original French. Tanya’s family is feeling the loss of income. She told us: “My husband is working as much overtime as he can to try and compensate … [and] just trying to keep things paid … We’ve certainly incurred a fair amount of debt during the process.” Jennifer 1 explained, “I spent all my savings … last summer … just trying to supplement the income I don’t have … Right now, if something goes wrong, I would have to ask someone to borrow money.” Ruth says it is “humbling … not being able to make my own money, and to provide for my household, buy something I just want to buy … I’ve worked since I was 16 years old.” aerik was living on low income before the pandemic. They are no longer able to “go to several different stores to get the cheapest price on things … I wasn’t able to do what I … had done to survive on a very limited income before.”
Paulina's loss of income and the high cost of living impacts her whole family.
Transcript
It’s been very, very stressful because I was the one that always did the finances, you know, paid the bills, made up the grocery list. So we had to cut back a lot on a lot of things. And you know, with three growing kids, buying summer clothes, like, they […]
Valérie was studying to become a teacher. There was no teaching during lockdown so she was not entitled to employment insurance.
Written testimony
Ok, bien je dirais que c’est sûr que financièrement on est quand même très serré, fait que c’est certain qu’on n’a pas beaucoup de lousse pour pouvoir justement, vraiment… T’sais on arrive à acheter qu’est-ce qu’il faut pour les enfants, parce que de toute façon, à un moment donné on n’a pas le choix, t’sais comme les uniformes d’école, puis les souliers, les manteaux, tout ça, on a comme… On se sert la ceinture pour être capable de leur payer ce qu’ils ont besoin. Mais avec mon intervenante du CLSC dans le fond, elle, elle a fait une demande pour qu’on puisse avoir droit à l’aide alimentaire. Parce que même si on n’est pas considéré comme dans un… Comment je pourrais dire? On n’est pas sur l’aide sociale, mon mari travaille, on a une belle maison, mais ça n’empêche pas le fait qu’on n’y arrive pas, surtout avec l’inflation, le prix des trucs qui a augmenté, aussitôt qu’il y a quelque chose qui est imprévu comme une paire de souliers, ou quelque chose qui brise sur la maison, ou la voiture, on est fait. On se retrouve toujours à aller piger dans notre marge de crédit … Mais c’est sûr que probablement l’année prochaine on va devoir probablement vendre la maison, puis essayer de déménager ailleurs parce que là on arrive vraiment trop serré.
[“Ok, well I’d say that financially we’re very tight, so we don’t have a lot of money to be able to really … You know, we manage to buy what we need for the kids, because anyway, at some point we have no choice, you know like school uniforms, shoes, coats, all that, we’re like… We tighten our belts to be able to pay for what they need. But with my CLSC worker in the background, she applied for food aid. Because even though we’re not considered to be in a… How shall I put it? We’re not on welfare, my husband works, we have a nice house, but that doesn’t stop us from not being able to afford it, especially with inflation, the price of things going up, as soon as there’s something unexpected like a pair of shoes, or something breaking on the house, or the car, we’re done for. We always end up dipping into our line of credit… But it’s certain that next year we’ll probably have to sell the house and try to move somewhere else, because we’re really too tight right now.] Translation from original French.
Lyse gave up her car to help make ends meet.
Transcript
Bien là, la situation financière, comme je te dis, là pour l’instant j’en ai, mais je ne sais jamais quand ça va arrêter. Mais j’ai remis ma voiture, puis d’un côté, je ne suis pas fâchée. Parce que je me dis, j’ai quand même mon téléphone, puis l’hypothèque, on a […]
Maggie is financially stable at the moment but worries about the future.
Transcript
I consider myself fortunate in that I, I’m fairly stable financially. But it has changed things. So, you know, I’m obviously …? that discretionary spending that you do without thinking has changed. You know, budgeting … what I’m thinking more about in terms of finances, is if this is to […]
Insurance coverage and the need for financial support
A few of the people we spoke with had private or work-related disability insurance which supplemented their income and covered at least some of their additional expenses related to long COVID. However, many people did not. While they wished they could bring in outside help with aspects of daily life such as cleaning, preparing meals, essential travel (e.g. to medical appointments) and childcare, they generally could not afford to do this. Some of our participants had applied, or wanted to apply, for government support programs but found the process difficult and overwhelming. Many also pointed out that long COVID was not yet recognized as a health condition warranting support by many insurance and government programs.
Violaine considers herself lucky to have had insurance coverage in the short term. She is applying for long-term disability coverage but doesn’t know what will happen. « Financièrement, jusqu’à maintenant j’ai eu des assurances. Je ne sais pas la suite des choses, je suis dans des démarches pour la reconnaissance d’une invalidité de longue durée. J’espère que tout se passera bien avec les assurances, qu’il n’y aura pas d’embûches, mais bon en théorie, j’ai des assurances, c’est ça je suis bien entourée. » [Financially, I’ve had insurance until now. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I’m in the process of applying for long-term disability. I hope that everything will go smoothly with the insurance company, that there won’t be any pitfalls, but in theory, I have insurance, so I’m well taken care of.] Translation from original French.
Carrie 1 wishes she could get support for daily tasks she now finds challenging.
Transcript
So, I would really – I would have loved – even if it had just been in terms of some sort of subsidy, or even if I had to pay for it myself, but I got money back. Any sort of way that I could access, for example, someone to […]
Jennifer 1 wishes she had financial support for daily needs.
Transcript
So people with long COVID need support on just the daily things. Your cleaning, your food. Most places do have free grocery delivery, but some don’t. If you’re like me you end up going grocery shopping anyway because the quality of vegetables and fruit that you get means that everything’s […]
Carrie 1 says applying for financial support is like climbing Mount Everest.
Transcript
There are some programs that you can get into, probably here in Quebec, different provincial programs. But all of them are a ton of paperwork. And paperwork for me is Mount Everest, I’m – paperwork is just awful for my brain fog and my cognitive dysfunction. And so I would […]
Ruth now has long-term disability support but getting it was a long and complex process.
Transcript
So, the insurance I had for my work was only for medication. I didn’t have long term, short term, I didn’t have anything like that. So, I had to take unpaid leave. I got EI sick benefits for the 15 weeks that are allowed. And I actually couldn’t get anything […]
Lyse says you never know how long financial support will last.
Transcript
Je voulais dire aussi que côté financier, au début, j’ai eu l’aide du gouvernement fédéral, la PCRME, j’ai eu ça, ensuite je suis tombée sur l’assurance chômage, j’ai eu deux mois, sans aucun argent parce que mon dossier était bloqué. Je ne sais pas. Il y a de quoi qui […]
Valérie is afraid of falling into the hole of an unrecognized illness.
Written testimony
Puis là dans le fond, de mon côté, étant donné la gravité de mes symptômes, on a commencé les démarches l’année passée, pour faire une demande de rente d’invalidité à la RRQ parce que comme je disais, je n’ai aucune assurance, je n’ai rien. Il n’y a aucune autre possibilité pour moi parce que c’est juste impossible que je puisse retourner travailler. J’ai eu des médecins qui ont rempli des rapports comme quoi ça allait être permanent, que dans le fond mon état, si jamais ça s’améliore, ça va être très, très graduellement puis on ne sait pas jusqu’à quel point, mais ça se peut fortement que ce soit insuffisant pour que j’aie la possibilité de travailler. Donc la seule option que j’ai en ce moment, c’est la RRQ et au Québec, on est la seule province au Canada, où la rente d’invalidité temporaire n’existe pas. Et ça, ça crée un gros, gros trou dans lequel il y a beaucoup de personnes qui ont la COVID longue qui tombent dedans. Et dans d’autres cas aussi évidemment, mais là on parle de la COVID longue, mais on est énormément de personnes qui se retrouvent dans cette situation-là, à tomber dans le trou de l’invalidité est-elle permanente ou pas? Puis la notion de permanence est très difficile à prouver quand c’est une nouvelle maladie.
[And then, basically, on my side, given the severity of my symptoms, we started the process last year to apply for a disability pension from the RRQ because, as I was saying, I have no insurance, I have nothing. There’s no other option for me because it’s just impossible for me to go back to work. I’ve had doctors fill out reports saying that it’s going to be permanent, that basically my condition, if it ever gets better, it’s going to be very, very gradual and then we don’t know to what extent, but it may very well be insufficient for me to be able to work. So the only option I have at the moment is the QPP, and in Quebec, we’re the only province in Canada where there’s no temporary disability pension. And that creates a big, big hole into which many people with long term COVID fall. And in other cases too, of course, but we’re talking about the long COVID here, but there are a huge number of people who find themselves in this situation, falling into the disability hole – is it permanent or not? And the notion of permanence is very difficult to prove when it’s a new illness.] Translation from original French.