Ontario won't claw back federal disability benefit
Amid growing concern from Ontarians with disabilities and their advocates, the province has announced it will not claw back the incoming Canada Disability Benefit (CDB).
The CDB was passed in 2023, and the government committed $6.1 billion to it in the 2024 federal budget. Beginning in July, eligible recipients can receive up to $2,400 per year, or a maximum of $200 per month.
In a news release on Tuesday, the province announced it will be exempting the federal benefit as income. That means recipients won't have money deducted from their provincial social assistance payments or entitlements such as the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).
Since the CDB's passage, advocates have feared the provinces and territories may claw back the benefit. As of this March, at least seven have promised not to do that, but Alberta has announced it will claw back the benefit under certain circumstances.
"It was a huge concern that this was not going to make it to the people who deserve to see this benefit," said Ron Anicich, co-chair of the ODSP Action Coalition.
Rabia Khedr, national director of advocacy group Disability Without Poverty (DWP), said the news from Alberta stoked fear and disappointment within the disability community.
But Khedr said the Ontario government has previously taken "steps in the right direction," including its decision to increase the ODSP exemption from $200 to $1,000, giving her hope that the province would do the right thing.
"I always felt strongly that, because they had committed to an earnings exemption, that there is no way they could justify clawing back a $200 federal benefit," she said. "So I'm glad that they have confirmed that today."
Advocates say they still have other concerns about the benefit program, however.
In order to be eligible for the CDB, recipients must be approved for the disability tax credit, and for that they must receive certification from a medical practitioner.
"What we're seeing now is people scrambling to sign up for the disability tax credit," said Anicich. "Which is fine when people have family doctors, but there are two million people in this province that do not have family doctors who are just unable to access this benefit."
To Khedr, the answer is to "simply cut red tape."
"The folks that are in the provincial system who have already filled out medical forms and have already attested to their disability shouldn't have to complete that kind of scrutinizing process again," she said.
Instead, many disability advocates have been calling for the federal government to make recipients of provincial programs such as ODSP automatically eligible for the CDB.
In an email to CBC on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said it's also calling on the federal government to change the Income Tax Act to align those eligibility requirements.
"We believe people who already access the Ontario Disability Support Program and meet the other eligibility criteria should automatically qualify for the CDB, rather than be required to pay $200 under the program as it is presented," the spokesperson wrote.
Despite the good news on clawbacks, Khedr and Anicich still regard the CDB's maximum monthly payment of $200 as inadequate and are calling for an increase.
"Ontarians with disabilities on ODSP and who qualify for the candidate disability benefits still will be well below the poverty line," Khedr noted. "And living with a disability costs at least 30 per cent above the poverty line."
Khedr said recipients desperately need the financial help and will use it to improve their lives.
"It means that maybe they can buy healthier food or supplements, maybe they can buy over-the-counter painkillers to manage their day so that they can even consider searching for work and improving their quality of life," she said. "It is money that will be spent on necessities of daily living."
Khedr and Anicich are also calling for better collaboration among people with disabilities and their advocates, and demanded a say when decisions affecting their lives are made.
"There's nothing like lived experience — 'nothing about us without us,'" Khedr said. "If they have us at the table, we will make it so easy for them to get policy right."
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