“Impairment” means you’ve lost a normal physical or mental function or that you’re scarred or disfigured from the injuries sustained in a motor-vehicle accident. In the event your involvement in a motor-vehicle accident causes a permanent impairment, you will be compensated with a lump-sum payment.
The law describes different types of impairments and assigns a percentage value to them. The most serious and disabling impairments are assigned the highest percentages. We assign your permanent impairment a percentage of up to 100 per cent. That percentage is your portion of the maximum indemnity payable at the time of accident. For example, if your permanent impairment is assessed 50 per cent, we pay you half the maximum indemnity.
The lump-sum impairment payment is made after treatment has been completed, the injury has healed as much as possible and the extent of the permanent impairment can be properly assessed. This may take a year or more, depending on the injury.
The permanent impairment payment depends on the extent of your impairment. The type of work you did before the accident or your need for help with personal care after the accident doesn’t affect the permanent impairment payment. However, these factors could affect other benefits you receive under PIPP, such as income replacement and personal assistance expenses.
Please speak to your case manager if your doctor tells you that you’ll have a permanent impairment from a motor vehicle accident. Your case manager will tell you what documents MPI needs to process your claim. In some cases, we may ask you for photographs of scars, for example, along with a doctor’s report.
Permanent impairments
PIPP provides a one-time payment when the motor-vehicle accident caused impairment that will last throughout your lifetime. Here are a few examples of permanent impairments:
- permanent scarring from burns
- loss of hearing
- disfiguring facial injuries
- amputation of a finger
- removal of a kidney
- permanent paralysis
- brain damage causing permanent short-term memory loss
Whiplash
Soft tissue injuries which will eventually heal do not result in a payment as there has not been a permanent loss of function that will last for the duration of your life.
Multiple impairments and impairments from before the accident
If you have more than one impairment from the accident, we will factor together the percentages for the different impairments to establish the amount of the payment. This is more complicated than simply adding the percentages together. When you had a pre-existing impairment before the accident, an additional impairment might have more serious consequences for you. We take this into account when calculating the permanent impairment payment.
Amount of payment
The formula for calculating the permanent impairment payment is set out in the law. We multiply the percentage for the impairment by the maximum lump-sum amount for the year in which the accident occurred. The maximum amount is adjusted to the Consumer Price Index on March 1 each year. Please see the PIPP benefits page for the lump-sum payment amounts that apply this year.
Timing of payment
In most cases, we must wait until your injuries have had a chance to heal so that your doctor can assess the exact extent of the permanent impairment. Depending on the injury, it can take a year or more to establish the extent of the impairment and therefore the amount of the permanent impairment payment.
If a person survives 90 days beyond the date of the accident and then dies as a result of injuries sustained in the , there are payments for the impairment and also for the death. Please refer to the Fatality Claim Guide for additional details.