The Board will re-evaluate your loss of earnings benefits upon completion of the retraining program to reflect your potential new earnings. It is usually the Board’s opinion that you have received skills and are therefore able to find employment in the suitable occupation or business (SO) which was chosen for you. For example: if you retrained as customer service representative, the WSIB would presume that you have the appropriate skills and should be able to find employment at an entry-level wage in this job category. They would then reduce your benefits by the amount of the anticipated entry-level wages in this SO. In this example, a customer service representative. This decision is of course, appealable. The appeal must be filed within 6 months of the date of decision.

The following factors are considered in determining whether or not an appeal will be successful:

  1. The reasonable availability of employment in the goal set by the Board.
  2. Adequacy of skills and training received by you the worker.
  3. The worker’s physical and mental ability to perform the duties required either on a part time or full time basis.
  4. The worker’s level of cooperation with WSIB.
  5. Availability and strength of the medical information to support your position.

It is important that a worker, if in disagreement with a Board decision, immediately appeal the decision and obtain appropriate advice so as to maximize the benefits they are legally entitled to from the WSIB. It is extremely important that regardless of whether or not you as a worker agree with the WSIB, you must continue to search for work even if you believe you can never return to work again. A job search is critical in ensuring that you have mitigated your losses as an injured worker and made a whole-hearted attempt at finding employment in the area which you have been retrained. A failure to do this can lead to a poor result.