Canada Disability Benefit Needs to be More Accessible and Cover Essential Costs

When the federal budget was presented in April, many people with disabilities and organizations who assist them were looking forward to announcements surrounding the Canada Disability Benefit. The legislation that set the framework for the Canada Disability Benefit, C-22, passed with unanimous support in the House of Commons a year and a half ago, and received Royal Assent a year ago, making it law. People with disabilities and their advocates had been waiting for quite a long time to see exactly what the details of the benefit would be. To say that the benefit has fallen short of expectations is an understatement.

The purpose of the Canada Disability Benefit is to provide people with disabilities enough money to pull them out of poverty. As we know, people with disabilities are among the most impoverished in Canada. They make up one-fifth of the population, but account for over two-fifths of people considered low-income. The employment rate for working-aged people with disabilities, according to a recent Statistics Canada analysis, was 15 percent lower (65.1 percent) than those without disabilities (80.1 percent) in 2022. Those numbers were reported before inflation rose to levels that have had a serious impact on all Canadians, and it stands to reason that these inflationary pressures, particularly around housing and the cost of nutritious food, have had a more serious impact on people with disabilities.

This was why the announced funding for the Canada Disability Benefit was perhaps the most frustrating part of this year’s budget. To put the amount into context, here is the actual excerpt from the budget itself: “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.” $2,400 per year, when broken down, comes out to a paltry $200 per month. By the government’s own estimates in the budget, the Canada Disability Benefit would “increase the financial well-being of over 600,000 low-income persons with disabilities.” The wording of this line in the budget has been very concerning, as it functionally says very little. Of course any money would be an increase in the financial wellbeing of persons with disabilities, but does it actually pull them out of poverty?

On that measure, the previous Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion had stated that the benefit would lift hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities out of poverty. However, once the benefit was announced, the current Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities stated that the measures costed in the last budget would only lift 25,000 individuals over the poverty line. It should be noted that 1.6 million Canadians with disabilities live below the poverty line, and the fact that less than half of those will be able to access the benefit is unacceptable.

The reason for this is because receiving the Canada Disability Benefit requires a valid Disability Tax Credit (DTC) certificate. The DTC is one of the main tools the government uses to administer support programs and services to people with disabilities, but receiving it is not automatic, and people with disabilities far outnumber DTC applicants. A new bill, C-403, would allow any person eligible for a provincial disability tax credit, pension or benefit to automatically qualify for the DTC at the federal level. This would at least allow for more individuals to qualify for the Canada Disability Benefit and CPP Disability benefits, and ensure fewer people fall through the cracks.

That’s not to say the Canada Disability Benefit is set at an appropriate rate. $200 a month, at this point in time, wouldn’t be enough for groceries, let alone the broad stroke suggestion from the PM and his Ministers that it would pull people with disabilities out of poverty. If we are to help those 1.6 million individuals living with disabilities, we need to have a serious conversation about what the government must invest to do that.