A Christian think tank says Canada’s flagship disability benefit falls far short of lifting people with disabilities out of poverty, warning that the program’s size, eligibility rules and provincial rollbacks risk leaving millions of people worse off than they were before.
Cardas, an Ontario-based non-partisan research group, said in a report released on January 6 that the $200 Canadian Disability Benefit per month introduced last year is only a fraction of the amount needed to close the poverty gap for Canadians with disabilities. While the benefits represent progress, the report says the current system design fails to address persistent income insecurity, employment barriers and food insecurity that affect a significant proportion of the country’s disabled population.
The report noted that by 2022, more than one in four Canadians over the age of 15, or 8 million people, will be identified as having a disability.
“Canadians with disabilities, like other Canadians, want to thrive,” the Cardus report states.
“Financial security, meaningful work, and social connections are among the pillars of a fulfilling life. But for many Canadians with disabilities, these pillars remain elusive.”
The think tank says income support programs have proven inadequate, labor market barriers persist and social isolation is too frequently experienced.
“The Canada Disability Benefit is a federal government initiative and essentially relates to the first of these pillars, with a direct impact on the second pillar and an indirect impact on the third pillar,” the report added.
“However, its scope and design raise questions about the extent to which it will enhance the economic security of Canadians with disabilities.”
Your monthly benefit is indexed to inflation, so it increases with your cost of living. It also includes a phase-out rate, allowing recipients to work and keep more of their income compared to state programs.
But the current monthly stipend is only one-sixth of the amount proposed by Ottawa’s parliamentary budget officer to close the poverty gap for people with disabilities.
Eligibility for benefits is also mired in bureaucratic red tape, tied to the Disability Tax Credit (DTC), and requires expensive and complicated procedures to obtain medical certificates in order to receive benefits.
Another negative factor is that states offset payments through clawbacks. Provinces such as Alberta could cut local social assistance payments by C$200 (US$144), leaving recipients of state benefits no better off than before.
“While this benefit represents progress, worrying gaps remain,” the report said.
“Challenges such as lack of benefits, barriers associated with disability tax credits, and the risk of revocation by states highlight the need for reform.”
18% of Canadians with severe disabilities live below the poverty line, more than double the proportion of the population without disabilities (7%). People with severe disabilities earn an after-tax income of C$30,590 ($22,025) compared to C$46,080 ($33,178) for people without disabilities.
Approximately 26.4 per cent of Canadians with disabilities suffer from food insecurity, and for those with severe disabilities, the rate of missing a meal, known as severe food insecurity, is 15 per cent, more than seven times the rate of Canadians without disabilities.
The report also highlighted that only 30 per cent of Canadians diagnosed with very severe disabilities are employed, despite having the potential to work with appropriate support.
“There are certainly types of severe disabilities that exclude people from traditional paid employment,” the report says. “However, Statistics Canada data shows that many Canadians with disabilities are able to work, but are not currently working.”
Data from 2022 shows that 42 per cent of Canadians with disabilities aged 25 to 64 were not working but had the potential to work.
“Cardas’ previous research has shown that most people with disabilities are able and want to work, but face a range of barriers to employment,” the Cardas report states.
Barriers to employment faced by Canadians with disabilities include “a lack of workplace facilities, job training, or jobs that can be performed by people with severe disabilities, hiring managers’ assumptions about what people can and cannot do, and disability support systems that actively prevent people from working.”
In its report, Cardus outlined three potential paths to reforming the CDB for Canadians with disabilities.
First, federal reforms that would double current funding from C$1.6 billion ($1.15 billion) to C$3.2 billion ($2.3 billion) to increase monthly payments. This amount is only a fraction of the total C$31.4 billion ($22.6 billion) that the Canadian government is spending on electric vehicle subsidies, the report said.
Second, it would send money to existing state programs that help people with disabilities, rather than to federal benefits.
A third proposal would expand tax credits for donations to disability charities and support companies that make workplaces more accessible to people with disabilities.
“These options are exemplary of the roles of different sectors of society and focus on the roles of the federal government, provincial governments, businesses and charities,” the report concludes, adding that they also provide actionable steps to improve Canada’s disability support framework.
“Moving forward, policymakers should consider how society’s institutions work together and, together with civil society, prioritize policy reforms that support Canadians with disabilities to lead fulfilling lives of safety, opportunity, and belonging.”
