It’s been a little over a year since the federal government passed the Canada Disability Benefit (or Bill C-22) — a first-of-its-kind payment aimed at lifting working-age Canadians with disabilities out of poverty.
The actual benefits won’t reach recipients until 2025 and in the meantime, the government has been working to finalize the eligibility criteria, application process, payment amounts and appeal process. But the recent announcement of the draft regulations, alongside the 2024 federal budget funding allocations, have left the disability community concerned that the benefit will fail to deliver on its promise.
Following the release of the draft guidelines in June, Krista Carr, the executive vice president of Inclusion Canada, told me that the proposal falls short of meeting the needs of people with disabilities. “Despite years of consultation with the disability community, much of the feedback is not reflected in these regulations,” she says.
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As someone who identifies as disabled and is actively involved in the disability community, I share her concerns. While the government did consult with people with disabilities during the process of developing the bill, there are some aspects of the benefit that don’t account for our lived realities, including having to jump through hoops when navigating the application process, which has been described as cumbersome and time-consuming.
As part of the proposed eligibility requirements, the government is using the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) as the only pathway to determine eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit. The DTC is a non-refundable federal tax credit meant to help people with disabilities offset additional costs by reducing their income tax burden. However, the DTC has been heavily criticized for its complicated application process and unclear eligibility criteria. As a result, only 40 percent of working-age adults with disabilities are currently using the tax credit, which likely means that more than half of the people who need to access the new benefit will face additional barriers in doing so.
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Concerns have also been raised about inadequate funding. The federal budget, which was released in April, before the proposed regulations, allocated a total of $6.1 billion over six years ($1.1 billion annually) to the benefit. While it may sound like a high amount, those who qualify can claim a maximum of $2,400 annually, or $200 per month — hardly enough to address the disturbingly high rates of poverty among people with disabilities. According to a recent report by Family Service Toronto, 1.5 million Canadians with disabilities live in poverty.
“To bring people even up to the market-basket measure of poverty — which doesn’t even take into consideration the additional costs of disability — it is too little money for too few people,” says Carr.
Carr also points out that, as per the proposed regulations, the low-income annual threshold for someone to receive the benefit had been set at a cap of $23,000. “So, if someone is making $23,000, which is already below the official poverty line, they will receive less than $200 a month, which keeps them in poverty,” she says.
The national disability advocacy organization March of Dimes Canada has voiced similar concerns. “This budget doesn’t begin to fulfill the government’s promise to lift people with disabilities out of poverty,” said president and CEO Len Baker in a press release.
Adding to the list of concerns is a worry that the benefit will reduce funding for existing disability support programs in other jurisdictions. But as Carr points out, some provincial governments, like Manitoba and Newfoundland, are already working to ensure that the new federal benefit is exempt from any reductions. “We need to see all governments do the same,” she says.
While the benefit is certainly a step forward, the current regulations fail to address the very issue it was created for. With the final round of consultations taking place over the summer, however, there’s still time for the government to ensure that the benefit meets the needs of people with disabilities.
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Samuel Dunsiger is an Ottawa-based freelance writer, career adviser and accessibility advocate who identifies as disabled. He works within the intersection of employment and disability and enjoys using storytelling to normalize living with disabilities.
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