1. Find out what to do if you miss the 6-month deadline

If you missed the 6-month deadline, you should still your claim with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Explain why you did not file it earlier.

If you missed the deadline or the WSIB will not let you file your claim because it's late, get legal help right away.

Getting more time

The WSIB can give you more time to file your claim if:

a law changed and now you might be able to get a benefit that you could not get in the past
you made a claim for benefits in another province by mistake

The WSIB calls this extending the deadline.

The WSIB can also extend the deadline if:

your employer did not report your injury to the WSIB, and
you did not report your injury or illness because you did not feel safe doing that

For example, you might not have felt safe if your boss asked you not to tell the WSIB. Or your employer did not say it directly, but you have a strong feeling that they do not want people reporting to the WSIB.

As well, the WSIB can extend the deadline if you're not physically or mentally able to:

fill out the report form or call the WSIB, and
give the health professionals who treat you permission to report on your functional abilities to your employer and the WSIB

Getting more time for “exceptional circumstances”

The WSIB can also give you more time to file if something exceptional happens in your life, for example:

you or a close family member had an accident or serious health problems
you had to leave the province because a family member was sick or died
you did not understand that there were deadlines or what would happen if you did not meet them
you told your employer, a health-care professional, or a co-worker about your accident, but did not know that you also had to report it to the WSIB

The WSIB's Appeals Services Division has more information about getting more time. In their booklet Practices and Procedures, read Appendix A: Application for time limit extension criteria.

Giving the WSIB a good reason

The reasons listed above are just examples of when the WSIB might give you more time to file.

The WSIB can look at other reasons. But you need to give them a good reason why you did not file your claim on time.