Disability organizations and doctors are still waiting for Ottawa to fulfill a 2024 promise to make it easier for individuals with disabilities to apply for disability benefits.
In the 2024 budget, the federal government committed $40.5 million a year for six years beginning in 2024-2025 to help cover the costs of Disability Tax Credit applications.
But the government still does not have a plan for how people can access that money, the Ministry of Jobs and Families told Canadian Affairs in a July 31 email.
The 2024-2025 fiscal year ended March 31.
“We’re all kind of in the dark about what’s going on,” said Neil Belanger, CEO of Indigenous Disability Canada/British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society. The organization helps people apply for various government disability programs, including the Disability Tax Credit and the Canada Disability Benefit.
The absence of funding to cover Disability Tax Credit applications has taken on an added urgency as Ottawa rolls out the new Canada Disability Benefit. This benefit — which pays up to $200 monthly to working-aged, low-income adults with disabilities — is only available to people who receive the Disability Tax Credit.
Currently, many people with disabilities do not qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. Some do not have doctors to fill out the application form. And many cannot afford the hundreds of dollars in fees doctors can charge to complete the form.
In Mississauga, Ont., Barbara Chattergoon plans to apply for the Canada Disability Benefit if she qualifies for the Disability Tax Credit.
Chattergoon, 61, delayed her doctor’s appointment for her Disability Tax Credit application for months because she could not afford the fees. She was told her doctor would charge her less than the Ontario Medical Association’s recommended minimum fee. The association recommends doctors charge an hourly fee to complete the form, at a minimum of $150.
Chattergoon, who cannot work due to mental disabilities, says she plans to have her doctor fill out the application forms soon — but only because a relative is lending her money to cover the fee.
Even once she applies, she will likely face a long wait.
As of Aug. 6, the Canada Revenue Agency’s website says Disability Tax Credit applications may take up to 15 weeks to process. There have been a higher than usual number of applications, the tax agency says.
People who then apply for the Canada Disability Benefit face more waiting. As Canadian Affairs previously reported, tens of thousands of Canada Disability Benefit applications are still being processed. Many people who applied when applications opened on June 20 are still waiting for a response.
Disability advocates and policy experts have long criticized the government’s decision to tie eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit to the Disability Tax Credit, as many people with disabilities do not qualify for the credit.
Restricting the benefit to people with the Disability Tax Credit was “the worst-case scenario,” said Michael Prince, a retired University of Victoria professor who has studied disability social policy for decades.
The government’s 2024 pledge to cover Disability Tax Credit application fees was the government “grudgingly [acknowledging] that they picked the worst eligibility gateway,” he said.
‘Prohibitive to many’
Organizations that help people apply for disability benefits also report people struggling to pay for Disability Tax Credit applications.
Plan Institute is a national non-profit that helps people with disabilities with financial planning. Beginning last year, the federal government gave Plan Institute, and 12 other disability organizations, funding to run programs to help people apply for disability benefits.
The funding these organizations received — $22.4 million over five years starting in 2025–26 — is separate from the money the government pledged to reduce the cost of Disability Tax Credit applications.
More than a third of callers to the Plan Institute’s helpline say they cannot afford the fee for the Disability Tax Credit application, Rachael Plant, the organization’s director of grants and programs, said in an email.
Another 40 per cent said they could only afford the fee if they sacrificed food, medications or other essentials.
“The fees to complete the form … are prohibitive to so many,” Plant said in her email.
“We also know that many people are unable to find a medical practitioner who is even willing to complete the form for them.”
Neil Belanger, whose organization supports Indigenous people with disabilities, also said he sees many people struggling to afford the Disability Tax Credit application fees.
Some doctors do not charge any fees for filling out the forms. But Belanger says some people have been charged more than $300.
“It doesn’t matter what the fee charged is, the people we serve typically live well below the poverty line, so any fee required to get a benefit they are entitled to, is not only unacceptable, it puts more undue strain [and] stress on them financially and personally,” Belanger said in his email.
‘Snapshot in time’
Doctors have also raised concerns about the fees patients pay and the amount of time doctors spend completing application forms.
The Canadian Medical Association is in talks with the Canada Revenue Agency about reducing these fees, says Dr. Margot Burnell, president of the Canadian Medical Association.
She also notes that filling out applications may not be the best use of doctors’ time.
“The time that it takes for a physician to fill out the form to make sure it’s accurate, to discuss it with the patient and the care provider, takes away from doing some other intervention with the patient and family,” she said.
Doctors may spend 20 to 40 minutes filling out the 16-page form, which asks about things such as a patient’s ability to walk, feed themselves or make decisions.
But these appointments are only a “snapshot in time,” said Burnell. “It’s really hard for us, often to be able to say, ‘This is what their disability is,’ because most of it is happening in the privacy of their home with their loved ones.”
The Canadian Medical Association would like patients to be able to fill out a form describing their disability, which doctors could then verify, she says.
But right now, the association is not sure when the government will make any announcements about the funding for Disability Tax Credit applications, she says.
The government is also not offering any details.
“The Government of Canada remains committed to making it easier to apply for the Disability Tax Credit, as announced in Budget 2024, and will provide updates in due course,” the Ministry of Jobs and Families told Canadian Affairs in its July 31 statement.
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