My Appeal

I read and reread the letter I received from Canada Revenue Agency. The one that said that I did not qualify for the Disability Tax Credit.

The problem seems to be that I included activities in my Summary of Life-Sustaining Activities that are not eligible. Specifically time spent following dietary restrictions (carb counting) and time spent following an exercise program.

I could have argued that the activities I included were not exactly what they were talking about but, instead, I decided to make a peace offering.

I removed any activity that might look like carbohydrate counting or following an exercise program. I eliminated time spent setting temporary basal rates on my pump because many, though not all, of these basal rates are required before or after exercise. I eliminated time spent preparing my pump for activities (such as waterproofing my pump before going outside in the rain) because many times I do this for exercise.

I cut 51 minutes of weekly activity from my list.

Guess what happened?

In order to qualify for the Disability Tax Credit, I need to prove that I spend a minimum of 14 hours per week doing life-sustaining therapy. Doing things that someone without diabetes would not do such as checking my blood sugar, changing my infusion sites, logging my numbers, priming my pump, treating and recovering from hypoglycemia etc etc.

When I first applied, I submitted a chart outlining each activity and how long I spent each week doing it. I reported that I spent an average of 17.5 hours per week one life-sustaining therapy.

Then I removed 51 minutes of activities that might, if I look carefully enough, not qualify.

That brought my average weekly time spent to 16.67 hours.

Still way above the minimum 14 hours required.

That's why I decided not to argue with them and simply remove the offensive activities.

I wrote a lovely explanation. I reprinted my updated chart. I mailed everything off to the Chief of Appeals.

Here's hoping that they take a look at my peace offering and realize that I do indeed qualify for the Disability Tax Credit.

Fingers crossed!