On the Canadian Disability Benefit — It Must Be Enhanced

The Canada Disability Act is written as “An Act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act”. The Trudeau government would like you to think of this as an “aspiration” now (2024 Budget) and hope you might forget the language in the Act. Don’t.

My April 17th, 2024 letter to the PM and Deputy PM is included below. It’s important that all Canadians touched by disability reach out to the PM and their elected MPs. Abject poverty amongst Canadians with severe disabilities must be addressed. In 2006, then UN Human Rights HIgh Commissioner and former SCC Justice, Louise Arbour stated: “This is not about impoverished countries where almost everyone, including people with disabilities, struggles to belong. It’s about countries like Canada, overflowing with riches by world standards but still paying mere lip service to inclusion.” Has much changed in 20 years?

TO: Honourable Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau MP

Honourable Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland MP

CC: Honourable Minister of Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons with Disabilities, Kamal Khera, MPP

Honourable Chris Lewis, MP Essex

RE: 2024 Budget and The Canadian Disability Benefit — It must be enhanced.

The Canadian Disability Benefit was touted as a most significant improvement for the tens of thousands of Canadians with complex disabilities and chronic medical problems who live well below Canada’s poverty level.

Often through no fault of their own, these individuals found themselves reliant on provincial disability support programs because they were unemployed raising children, or their workplaces had no provisions for disability benefits. A life relegated to a provincial disability support is often not much of a life at all. Few single recipients can afford adequate nutrition after paying rent and utilities on a monthly single benefit of about $1300 (Ontario). The use of food banks by disabled Ontarians has been climbing as documented by Feed Ontario. One in 7 food bank recipients across Canada rely on provincial disability support programs.

Many in the disability community were hoping the Canadian Disability Benefit would provide meaningful improvement to their quality of life. This budget is an overwhelming disappointment to them. Originally touted as a benefit to be on par with the Guaranteed Income Supplement for low income seniors, it has fallen most certainly short of that goal. Here we have an example of gross ableism by the federal government, who propose providing low income seniors with federal; benefits five times higher than impoverished Canadians with disabilities.

Two hundred dollars a month may provide single ODSP recipients with groceries for 1–2 weeks but this amount fails to accept the degree of poverty amongst Canadians with disabilities. It doesn’t acknowledge the high medical expenses, uninsured prescription and non-prescription medications, transit costs, etc. It fails to acknowledge that many are single parents. It would take about $700–800 a month to bring them to Canada’s poverty level threshold. A benefit of at least $500 would be meaningful.

Tying the Canada Disability Benefit eligibility to the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) was widely discouraged by health and disability advocates:

- Many disabled recipients of provincial disability support programs do not qualify for the DTC.

- The DTC application process can be complex.

- Many physicians outright discourage patients from applying for the DTC, suggesting it’s pointless. This of course is wrong, but nevertheless is a practice even I have witnessed first hand.

- The DTC administrators historically have not considered mental health disability with the same deference as other medical issues. Though I appreciate this is changing and the application now includes a mental health section.

As a physician who practised in oncology for 15 years, I can attest to the degree of poverty witnessed among ODSP recipients. It was a sad statement about Canada — We fail to value persons with disabilities as equal. Our cancer program had a compassionate use fund to assist cancer patients who couldn’t afford medications not covered by the Ontario Drug Benefits Formula/Trillium Plan. Most patients do not have access to such relief.

As a physician who has worked with a significant neurological disability since 1997, I can attest to the problem of ableism ingrained in our society, even amongst physicians. Workplace accommodations were challenged when I became disabled in 1998. Over my career, I had to file human rights complaints several times for the most basic accommodation requests including ergonomic furniture.

I am grateful for the progress your government has made in recognizing the disparate treatment of persons with disabilities in Canada. The Canada Disability Benefit is an important concept and provides hope to tens of thousands of Canadians. Please continue to review eligibility and improve the benefit amount. It should be means tested, looking at all sources of revenue including private disability (Tax-free) benefits. Eligibility should be expanded to include the many Canadians who live with disabilities, are dependent on inadequate provincial support programs, and are ineligible for the DTC (or were previously denied). The degree of poverty should also be a criterion for the benefit.

These comments are my own.

Most Sincerely,

Christopher Leighton MD, FRCPC

June 16th reply to my letter on behalf of the Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister for Diversity, Inclusion, and Persons of Disabilities, from the Acting Director General, Office of Disability Issues ESDC:

Dear Dr. Leighton:

On behalf of the Honourable Kamal Khera, Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities, I am responding to your email of April 17, 2024, about the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB).

The CDB is a key component of Canada’s first-ever Disability Inclusion Action Plan. Launched on October 7, 2022, the Action Plan is a blueprint for change to make Canada more inclusive of persons with disabilities. More information on the Action Plan is available at www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/disability-inclusion-action-plan.html.

Budget 2024 proposes funding of $6.1 billion over six years, beginning in 2024–2025, and $1.4 billion per year ongoing, for the new CDB. This would include costs to deliver the Benefit to eligible Canadians starting in July 2025, following successful completion of the regulatory process and consultations with persons with disabilities. The proposed design is based on a maximum benefit amount of $2,400 per year for low-income persons with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64.

This Benefit fills a gap in the federal government social safety net between the Canada Child Benefit and the Old Age Security for persons with disabilities and is intended to supplement, not replace, existing provincial and territorial income support measures.

The Government recognizes that the amount of the Benefit as announced in the Budget will not be sufficient to lift all persons with disabilities out of poverty, but it represents an important step that is estimated to benefit over 600,000 persons with disabilities when fully ramped up. Moreover, as indicated in Budget 2024, the Government aspires to see the combined amount of federal and provincial or territorial income supports for persons with disabilities grow over time to be comparable to the support provided through Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, to fundamentally address the rates of poverty experienced by persons with disabilities. The Benefit is meant to complement other sources of income and support available to persons with disabilities.

The Government is also aware that there are concerns about the requirement that individuals have a valid Disability Tax Credit certificate to access the Benefit, including the complexity and the cost associated with obtaining a certificate. The Government carefully considered the feedback that was collected through the pre-consultation process led by the Department in 2023. Ultimately, it was concluded that relying on the Disability Tax Credit is necessary in order to deliver the Benefit as quickly as possible and to ensure nationwide consistency of eligibility, the proposed CDB would be available to people with a valid Disability Tax Credit certificate.

The Government recognizes the challenges persons with disabilities may face in finding and accessing programs and services. Budget 2024 includes funding to cover the costs of the medical forms required to apply for the Disability Tax Credit and for community-based navigation services to improve awareness and take-up of federal, provincial and territorial programs available to working-age Canadians with disabilities.

The Government is very aware that many Canadians with disabilities need the additional financial support that a new CDB will provide. The intent, therefore, is to move forward as fast as we can with the regulatory development process, while also ensuring that the disability community is engaged, as required by the Canada Disability Benefit Act. The regulations must be finalized before payments can begin in July 2025.

More information on the Benefit, including updates, can be found at www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/disabilities-benefits.html.

I hope that this information is helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write.

Yours sincerely,

Comments:

I replied briefly to the content of their letter:

“It’s a bit incredulous to state that: “The Government recognizes that the amount of the Benefit as announced in the Budget will not be sufficient to lift all persons with disabilities out of poverty…”. Perhaps “any” is closer to the truth. Disability without Poverty reports that average disability benefits in Canada are $1300 monthly while the poverty line is near $2300. The National Director, Rabia Khedr, recently remarked that with an extra $200 a month, people with disabilities are now “only $800 below the poverty line”. Without concerted pressure or lobbying to have provincial and territorial governments increase their disability support payments, this legislation will have failed at its primary purpose as written in the first line of the Canada Disability Benefit Act: “An Act to reduce poverty and to support the financial security of persons with disabilities by establishing the Canada disability benefit and making a consequential amendment to the Income Tax Act”.”