Elimination Period
Période d'élimination in French
Quick definition
The elimination period, also called the waiting period, is the time between becoming disabled and the first benefit payment. Nothing is paid during it, and a longer one buys a meaningfully cheaper premium.
How it works
You become disabled, the elimination period runs, and only then do benefits begin. Common lengths in Canadian disability insurance are 30, 90, 120 and 180 days.
Two details catch people out. Benefits are usually paid in arrears, so a 90-day elimination period on a monthly benefit means the first cheque arrives around day 120, not day 90. And the clock generally starts at the date of disability, not the date you file the claim.
The gap is entirely yours to fund. Sick leave, an emergency fund or a spouse's income has to carry the household until payments start.
Why a longer wait is cheaper
Most disability claims are short. Insurers pay far more claims lasting weeks than claims lasting years, so agreeing to absorb the first stretch yourself removes the bulk of the claim frequency from the insurer's exposure.
That is why moving from a 30-day to a 90-day elimination period lowers the premium substantially, while moving from 90 to 180 days saves proportionally less. The steepest saving is at the short end.
The trade is straightforward: you are self-insuring the first months in exchange for a lower ongoing cost. Whether it is a good trade depends entirely on whether you actually have the savings to do it.
Choosing one
Match the elimination period to what you can genuinely cover. Count your paid sick leave, any short-term disability coverage at work, employment insurance sickness benefits if you qualify, and your emergency fund. The elimination period should end roughly where those run out.
A common and effective structure is short-term disability coverage at work that runs for the first 15 to 17 weeks, paired with a long-term policy whose elimination period is 119 days so the two meet without a gap. Check the actual numbers rather than assuming they line up.
Choosing a 30-day period when you have six months of savings is paying for coverage you do not need. Choosing 180 days when you have three weeks of savings is a plan that fails in month two.
Related but different: the survival period
Critical illness insurance has its own waiting requirement, usually 30 days, but it works differently. It is a survival period: you must survive that long after diagnosis for the policy to pay at all.
That is why critical illness insurance is not a substitute for life insurance. A diagnosis followed by death inside the survival period produces no critical illness payout.
Do not confuse either with the benefit period, which is how long payments continue once they start.
In Canada
Employment insurance sickness benefits provide up to 26 weeks of partial income replacement for Canadians who qualify, subject to insurable hours and a waiting period of their own. Many people use them to bridge a long elimination period, though the amount is capped and modest.
Group long-term disability plans in Canada commonly use a 119-day or 17-week elimination period, specifically so they begin where a short-term disability plan or EI sickness benefits leave off.
Recurrence provisions matter alongside the elimination period. Most policies waive a second elimination period if the same condition returns within a set window, often six months, so a failed return to work does not restart the wait from zero.
Worked example
Ines earns $7,500 a month and is considering a 90-day or a 180-day elimination period. She has 12 weeks of accumulated sick leave and about $20,000 in an emergency fund, so she could cover roughly six months. The 180-day option saves her a meaningful amount of premium every year for what is, in her case, a risk she can already absorb. Had her emergency fund been $5,000, the 90-day option would have been the only one that actually worked.
Reviewed by Alexandre Bernier, CFP®, CIM®, PFP®·Updated September 2026