Income replacement for faculty, academic executive and staff high earners enrolled in the Faculty Pension Plan

If you are on short-term sick leave or unpaid medical leave and unable to work for 26 weeks or more due to illness or injury, you may qualify for long-term disability, which will provide you with a monthly income at a percentage of your regular salary.

Your long-term disability plan is called the Income Replacement Plan (IRP). Sun Life is UBC’s insurer for the IRP.

The information applies to you if you are a member of one of the following employee groups:

  • Academic Executives,
  • Administrative Executives enrolled in the Faculty Pension Plan,
  • Faculty, and
  • Staff High Earners enrolled in the Faculty Pension Plan (earning $200,555.56 or more in 2024).

When you should apply

If you are in your third month of absence from work due to illness or injury and it does not seem that you will be able to make a full return to work, you should apply for long-term disability. Call the Benefits Claims & Finance Associate at 604-822-8988 or email disabilityclaims.info@ubc.ca to learn how to apply for benefits and to obtain the application forms you’ll need.

If you are on an unpaid medical leave

If you have used up your paid short-term sick leave days and have not yet completed the elimination or waiting period for the IRP, you will be placed on an unpaid medical leave. During your unpaid leave, you have the option to continue receiving coverage for your IRP and your other benefits if you pay the full cost of these premiums.

If you are on an unpaid leave of absence during the elimination period, you will receive a Benefits Task in your Workday inbox to make your elections for On Leave benefit plans.  Once you submit your benefit elections, a Benefits Partner from Payroll will check that your benefits elections are correct and notify you of the monthly cost.

If you decide not to continue your IRP coverage or fail to pay your premiums, you are no longer eligible to receive IRP benefit payments after the qualification period. Your coverage will be reinstated when you return to active work.

Your responsibilities

If you are receiving IRP benefit payments, you are expected to make reasonable efforts to:

  • recover from your disability, including participating in any reasonable treatment or rehabilitation program and accepting any offer of reasonable modified duties from UBC, and
  • obtain benefits that may be available from other sources.

Your IRP benefit payments may be withheld or discontinued if you do not fulfill these responsibilities.

For more information

The outline above is a descriptive summary of the plan and is not a contract. All terms and conditions are governed by Contract Number 100768 with Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. In the event of a discrepancy, benefits will be paid according to the official document and applicable legislation. For complete details about your Disability Benefit Plan, refer to the Sun Life benefits booklet.

If you were disabled prior to January 1, 2012, please refer to the Sun Life benefits booklet for Contract Number 023218.

Disclaimer

The benefits information on this website is provided as a descriptive summary only. While the University has endeavored to accurately reflect its benefit programs, policies and plans, the information on this website does not create any contractual or other rights between the University and its faculty and staff members. To the extent that there are any conflicts or discrepancies between the benefits information on this website and the benefit plan documents (including group insurance contracts and benefit booklets) or any applicable collective agreement, employment agreement, or UBC policy, the benefit plan documents and collective agreement, employment agreement, or UBC policy will govern in all cases.

UBC Crest The official logo of the University of British Columbia. Urgent Message An exclamation mark in a speech bubble. Caret An arrowhead indicating direction. Arrow An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Time A clock. Chats Two speech clouds. E-commerce Cart A shopping cart. Facebook The logo for the Facebook social media service. Home A house in silhouette. Information The letter 'i' in a circle. Instagram The logo for the Instagram social media service. Linkedin The logo for the LinkedIn social media service. Location Pin A map location pin. Locked A locked padlock. Mail An envelope. Menu Three horizontal lines indicating a menu. Minus A minus sign. Pencil A pencil indicating that this is editable. Telephone An antique telephone. Play A media play button. Plus A plus symbol indicating more or the ability to add. Search A magnifying glass. Settings A single gear. Speech Bubble A speech bubble. Star An outline of a star. Twitter The logo for the Twitter social media service. Unlocked An unlocked padlock. User A silhouette of a person. Vimeo The logo for the Vimeo video sharing service. Youtube The logo for the YouTube video sharing service.