You cannot work, the rent is due, and somebody has told you your insurance covers lost income. Whether that is true now depends on one line on your policy.
Until this summer, income replacement came inside every Ontario auto policy. Since 1 July 2026 it is optional. If it was bought, it pays 70 per cent of your gross income, to a weekly maximum that starts at $400. If it was not, there is no income benefit to claim, and you need the other routes further down this page.
How to find out in five minutes
Look at your declaration page, the summary sheet that came with your policy, and find the accident benefits section. Income replacement is listed there or it is not.
If you cannot find it, phone your broker or insurer and ask one question: does this policy include the optional income replacement benefit, and at what weekly limit. Ask for the answer in writing.
Two things to know before you call. A policy that renewed after 1 July keeps the coverage it already had unless somebody gave written consent to remove it. A policy taken out fresh after that date starts with the mandatory minimum only, which does not include income replacement.
What it pays, if you have it
Seventy per cent of your gross income, to a weekly maximum that starts at $400 under standard coverage and rises where a higher limit was purchased. It does not start immediately: the first week of disability is not payable.
Two other benefits sit beside it, and both are now optional too. The non-earner benefit pays $185 a week after a four-week wait, for up to two years, for someone who was not employed at the time. The caregiver benefit pays $250 a week for the first person you care for, plus $50 for each additional one.
The test changes at two years
This is the part that surprises people, and it is worth knowing on day one rather than at week 103.
For the first 104 weeks, the question is whether your injuries leave you substantially unable to perform the essential tasks of the job you had. After 104 weeks, the question becomes whether you are completely unable to engage in any employment you are reasonably suited for by education, training or experience.
That is a much harder test, and it is applied to whatever is in your file by then. Which is why a record of what you cannot do, kept from the first week and updated as things change, is worth more than any letter you write later.
What if you do not have it?
You are not out of options, but they are different ones.
Your treatment is still covered. Medical, rehabilitation and attendant care remain mandatory in every policy: $65,000 combined for a non-catastrophic injury, $1,000,000 where the impairment is catastrophic, and $3,500 where your injuries are treated as minor. That last cap has two ways out of it, set out in the Minor Injury Guideline.
Ontario still lets you sue. Unlike British Columbia, Manitoba or Quebec, Ontario keeps a claim against the driver who caused the collision, and income loss is part of what that claim covers. It runs on its own two-year limitation period, separate from anything your own insurer does.
Other coverage may exist. Employment Insurance sickness benefits, a workplace short-term or long-term disability plan, or a disability policy of your own. Ask about all three, because they have deadlines of their own and none of them waits for your auto claim to finish.
The paperwork that starts it
Three dates and three forms.
- Seven days to tell your insurer you intend to claim accident benefits. Reporting the crash alone doesn't count, so use the one sentence to say on your first call.
- Thirty days to return the completed application, the OCF-1.
- The income forms. Your employer completes the OCF-2 confirming your earnings, and a health practitioner completes the OCF-3 disability certificate. An income claim rarely moves until both are in.
Chase them. A form sitting on somebody's desk looks exactly like a person who is not really off work.
If the benefit is refused or stopped
Disputes go to the Licence Appeal Tribunal, within two years, and the clock runs from the insurer's refusal rather than from the collision. The rest of the dates alongside an Ontario claim are on our Ontario accident benefit deadlines page.
Write on the envelope the day a decision arrives. That date is the start of your clock and it is yours to prove.
What to write down, starting today
- What your policy includes. Photograph the declaration page and keep it with your claim notes.
- Your income before the crash. Pay stubs, a recent tax return, and for self-employment the invoices and the work you have turned down since.
- Every shift or day missed, with the date, and who at work knows about it.
- The essential tasks you cannot do, named one by one, plus any modified duties you tried and what happened when you did. This is the 104-week test in advance.
- Every form and letter, and the date it moved. When the OCF-2 went to your employer, when it came back, when the insurer wrote.
What actually changed on 1 July 2026
Ontario Regulation 383/24 amended the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule so that only medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits, plus the cost of examinations, stay in every policy. Income replacement, the non-earner benefit, caregiver, housekeeping and home maintenance, dependant care, death and funeral benefits, lost educational expenses and personal items all became optional.
Two quieter changes came with it. Optional benefits, where purchased, now cover only the named insured, their spouse, their dependants and listed drivers, so a benefit still on the policy may reach fewer people than it did. And your auto insurer is now generally the first payer for accident-related treatment, ahead of a workplace or private health plan, which draws on the same $65,000 as everything else.
What to read next
The Minor Injury Guideline covers the $3,500 cap and the two ways out of it. What to do after a car accident in Canada covers the steps that apply wherever you live, and the guides by province and territory cover everywhere else.
Every figure here comes from a named source.
Last verified: September 2026.
Verified against: the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario on the changes to Statutory Accident Benefits coverage effective 1 July 2026, and its standard benefit statement showing the $65,000, $130,000 and $1,000,000 coverage levels and the $3,500 minor injury limit; Ontario Regulation 383/24 amending the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, O. Reg. 34/10; and the Insurance Bureau of Canada's summary of which benefits became optional.
If you find something out of date on this page, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
This is general information for people in Ontario. It is not legal, medical or insurance advice. What you can claim depends on the coverage in place on the day of your accident, so check your own policy or ask your broker before relying on any figure here.
