Recognizing the Impact of Autism on Employment Insurance Benefits

A few weeks ago, I defended my right to receive employment insurance benefits. Three times in recent years I have been refused. The program administrators judged that there was no connection between my reality as an autistic person and the circumstances surrounding my “resignations” from my previous jobs. Autism and all the complications it can cause cannot explain—even in part, by their standards—the rationale for quitting a job.

In its decision rendered last week, the Social Security Tribunal finally recognized the importance of taking into account the reality of an autistic person before imposing an exclusion from benefits due to a fault: a voluntary departure from a job that didn’t suit me.

“Asperger”, “high level”, “social blunders”, “sensory overload”: these are so many words to describe my daily life.

Officially, I am functionally autistic. When I talk about it, it is not uncommon for people to answer me “we couldn’t have guessed it”, thus raising the issue of invisible handicap. Yet, despite the fact that “I don’t look autistic” and that I am very functional, I have my own battles to fight. I know that “everyone has their own challenges”; but I, in addition, have those related to my autistic personality. And these prevent me from keeping a job.

My reality is that it systematically makes me sick, because the work life — at least the one I’ve known so far — is simply unbearable for me. Most non-autistics who encounter difficulties similar to mine usually manage to overcome them, to adapt over time. Not me. My batteries are draining and I can no longer work.

Thus, when I leave my job because it threatens my psychological health, and I am refused employment insurance, the financial stress is added to my already fragile state. Apparently, autism-related issues slipped under the EI radar, as disabilities too invisible to be considered. That’s why I want to talk about it.

Interrelations

Access to employment insurance benefits plays a big role in a person’s ability to bounce back from job loss. Moreover, for many, these sums of money represent not only the concrete possibility of leaving an unsuitable job, but also the first step of a new beginning, towards a job in which it is possible to fulfill oneself and project oneself.

This is especially true for people with autism, who face additional challenges to integrate sustainably into a workplace.

For example, in my case, it’s almost impossible for me to make up my mind about what a job will be like before I’ve had it. I can’t know if the work atmosphere and job content will suit me. This is the case for other autistic people: it is very difficult to know if we will like it before having tried it. I once almost didn’t apply for a job that I ended up loving.

It must be clearly understood that by refusing to take autistic disorder into consideration in the assessment of the circumstances surrounding the termination of employment, it is the right to leave a job that is unsuited to the particular situation of the person that is called into question. . In reality, such exclusion from the plan creates financial pressure that forces people to accept any job, regardless of the conditions, at the risk of no longer being able to meet their basic needs.

An outdated diet

Many of these blind spots have long been known to program officials. Just before the pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned his desire to “modernize” employment insurance to “adapt it to the challenges of the 21^e century “.

Between the lines, he implied that the program, in its current application, “misses the target frankly”. He also seemed to pay lip service to the fact that he simply cannot satisfactorily reach certain groups of unemployed people.

However, nothing has changed since these remarks.

Worse, in employment insurance, since the end of emergency benefits (CERB, PCRE, etc.) and the return to the usual rules, we seem to have reconnected with this old belief that too quick and easy access to of benefits necessarily increases the number of beneficiaries, and therefore of the unemployed.

Even taking a more traditional economic perspective — and considering the current labor shortage crisis — it is disturbing to see that so much effort is being put into integrating people with autism into the job market. without recognition of their condition. It is clear that by limiting itself to the unemployment rate and the calculation of the expenses allocated to benefits, the program ends up missing its initial target: that of offering adequate support to unemployed people.

This shortcoming is all the more worrying for people with autism like me, for whom autonomy, the “true choice” and real integration into employment depend above all on the recognition, both economic and symbolic, of their reality and the challenges additional requirements imposed on them.

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