Yes. I got very sick with COVID in April 2020. I am one of the few lucky Canadians who actually has disability insurance. I was able to rely on that for the first 16 weeks of my leave, as I mentioned. It was the short-term disability period.
During that time, there were a few weeks where I felt better and I did try to go back to work, unsuccessfully. As you know, long COVID often comes with waves of symptoms, so you get better for a little while and then it gets worse again. I wasn't able to stay at work. Despite that, my long-term disability claim was denied.
Thankfully, I had some savings that I could rely on for a little while. In my case, I may have been one of the rare people who.... My husband also got sick with long COVID, so we were both unable to work. We were able to apply for the sickness benefits, but 15 weeks with an illness like long COVID, where most people are sick for over a year, wasn't enough for us.
I made a choice to not get to the point where I would have to cash in my RRSPs. I wanted to keep that because that was meant for retirement. I'm going to need it in retirement, so I decided to sell my home. It was a very difficult decision, but it was the decision I was forced to make because after I was done with the short-term disability insurance and the 15 weeks' worth of EI sickness benefits, I had nothing else coming in. I've been without income now for many months.