An Edmonton man's benefits were cut off without any notification from his employer or his insurance company three months before his company went into receivership last month.

"I received no notification that anything's been terminated, frozen, whatever they want to call it," said Mike Watts, 27, who is currently on disability for a serious leg injury he suffered two years ago.

"I received no notification from them or the employer or anybody."

His former employer — Welcome Ford, a car dealership in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. — went into receivership in January and now owes $3.7 million to its creditors.

While Watts' disability payments have continued, his health benefits from Manulife Financial ended in October, about three months before Welcome Ford went into receivership.

Watts only recently learned about the change when the insurance company rejected a $2,000 dental claim for a root canal and wisdom tooth extractions.

Freak accident put man on disability

Watts started selling cars at Welcome Ford in 2007. But several months later, he suffered a compound fracture of the shin bone while playing floor hockey. Watts has been on crutches since then and has undergone a number of surgeries to get a bone graft, as well as a rod and pins in his leg to fix the injury.

Manulife refused comment on Watts' situation saying company officials do not discuss individual cases. But an insurance industry representative said the legal responsibility for notifying a claimant about the termination of company health benefits rests with the employer, not the insurer.

"That's generally because the insurer's relationship, the contractual relationship, is with the policy holder who is the employer. It's not with the plan member," said Wendy Hope, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association in Ottawa.

But an Alberta government spokesman said employers don't have a legal obligation to notify their employees either.

"There's no obligation for an employer to offer benefits to an employee," said Barrie Harrison, who works for Alberta Employment and Immigration.

"It's a perk of the workplace. Certainly [it] isn't under employment standards as a minimum obligation of an employer and as such when there's a change to the benefit program, we're not involved with that either."

As for Watts, his situation means he won't have coverage for the physiotherapy his doctor wants him to have on his leg.

Watts lives with his girlfriend and hopes he may be able to get coverage through her health plan.

With files from John Archer