A new NDP private member’s bill aims to make Canadians who receive provincial disability assistance automatically eligible for federal disability benefits.
Disability advocates have praised the bill, although some say it is unlikely to pass.
The federal government should do the “sensible thing” and make people eligible for federal disability benefits if they receive provincial disability benefits, said Michelle Hewitt, co-chair of Disability Without Poverty, an advocacy organization. If people have “already done the work and jumped through the hoops [to receive provincial disability benefits], we shouldn’t be looking for people to redo that,” she said.
Bill C-403, introduced last week by Laurel Collins, member of Parliament for Victoria, B.C., would change the Income Tax Act and the Canada Pension Plan to make recipients of provincial and territorial disability benefits automatically eligible for the federal Disability Tax Credit and Canada Pension Plan disability payments.
The change would “remove barriers and give people access to the supports that they need,” said Collins, who sponsored the bill after her constituents raised concerns about having to complete separate applications for provincial and federal disability benefits.
People must complete lengthy application processes to determine their financial and medical eligibility for provincial disability benefits. It does not make sense to have them “go through another rigorous process to say the exact same thing, which is that they are living with a disability,” she said.
Benefit panned
The Disability Tax Credit is a non-refundable tax credit for people with disabilities or people whose dependents, spouses or common-law partners have disabilities. People must earn income to benefit from the credit. The Disability Tax Credit amount for 2023 was $9,428 for adults and $14,928 for parents claiming it on behalf of a child.
In April’s budget, Ottawa announced its long-promised Canada Disability Benefit, and said that only people who qualify for the Disability Tax Credit can receive this benefit. That benefit, which will start being distributed in July 2025, is intended to reduce poverty among Canadians aged 18 to 64 who have disabilities.
Many disability groups have panned the Canada Disability Benefit, saying the announced maximum of $2,400 a year will not fulfill the government’s promise to bring Canadians with disabilities out of poverty.
They also criticized the government’s decision to limit access to people who receive the Disability Tax Credit. The government has said that tying the benefit to the credit will mean people receive it quickly.
Work on this private member’s bill began before the government announced what the Canada Disability Benefit would be, says Collins. The details about the benefit made the bill “very timely,” she said.
The office of Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the government’s response to the bill or whether the federal government has access to lists of provincial disability benefit recipients.
‘Roadblocks all the way’
Private member’s bills often do not pass. Parliament goes on summer break this month. Bills not passed into law before then are carried into the next sitting.
Even if this bill does pass, disability advocates say it would not do enough to reduce poverty among people with disabilities — a group that is more likely to live in poverty and struggle to find employment.
People who rely on social assistance often do not apply for the Disability Tax Credit, says Trevor Manson, co-chair of the ODSP Action Coalition, an advocacy group. Manson receives support from the Disability Tax Credit and the Ontario Disability Support Program, the province’s social assistance program for disabled Ontarians. He started receiving provincial disability benefits in 2016 after an application process that took between eight and nine months.
“A lot of people don’t bother with the Disability Tax Credit because it’s not a refundable tax credit,” Manson said. “Unless you have earnings from employment, it really doesn’t do much for you.”
In the budget, the government announced $243 million in funding for six years, beginning in 2024-2025, to help with the costs of applying for the Disability Tax Credit.
This funding is helpful but not enough, says Hewitt, with Disability Without Poverty. “That presumes that the problem is with people getting the medical part done,” she said. “That’s not necessarily the case. There are roadblocks all the way along the Disability Tax Credit [application] process.”
The Canada Revenue Agency determines who is eligible for the benefit. If the agency does not accept an application, it is denied.
Green MP Mike Morrice called the bill a “constructive effort” that he supports. Morrice is sponsoring a petition calling for recipients of provincial disability benefits to automatically qualify for the Canada Disability Benefit.
Morrice also sits on a parliamentary committee that studied the legislation to create the Canada Disability Benefit. He recently shared on X a note from Minister Khera’s office saying the government expects the Canada Disability Benefit to bring 25,000 Canadians with disabilities above the poverty line by 2027-2028.
The note does not explain how the government came to that number. Minister Khera’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Morrice says that, in his opinion, this number indicates that the Canada Disability Benefit will go to people who are already close to the poverty line if $2,400 a year will be enough to bring them above the poverty line.
“In my view, it would have been more appropriate for the Canada Disability Benefit to go to those individuals with disabilities with the greatest [financial] need,” he said.
