“‘A friend posted this writing today and it struck me that someday EVERYONE will go thru this discarding of “things” that are the memories of one’s life. Sometimes it’s our own and more often it’s the life of someone we love…..❤️ When my mom was cleaning out her house over 23 years ago to sell it, I wasn’t very sympathetic over her attachments to things. I would go over on weekends to help her and we would go through things, things for a yard sale, things to donate, things to throw away. I would usually get upset over how long it was taking her to decide. For instance, we were going through kitchen cabinets and she spent 20 minutes looking at an iron kettle with a lid. Finally I said, “Mom, at this rate it is going to take us another 2 years.” She told me that her mother used to make meals in that kettle and leave them at doorsteps of neighbors during the depression, mom would deliver them, and then they would reappear back to her with an apron, or a wood carving, something in return for the meal. I realized that everything that my mom was going through was really a reliving of her life. If you are reading this and are under the age of 60, you wont get it. You haven’t lived long enough. Most of you have not had to move your parents into a nursing home, or emptied their home. You haven’t lived long enough to realize that the hours you spend picking out the right cabinets, or the perfect tile will not be what matters in the later years. It will be the handmade toothbrush holder, or a picture that you got on vacation. So, if your parents are downsizing, and moving to smaller places, or selling a home, give your mom and even your dad a break. Those things that you don’t understand why they can’t just pitch, and why you think you know what needs to be tossed or saved, give them a little time to make their decisions. They are saying goodbye to their past, and realizing that they are getting ready for their end of life, while you are beginning your life. As I have been going through things, its amazing just how hard it is to get rid of objects. But, life goes on, and you realize they are just things, but sometimes things comfort us. So give your parents or grandmparents a break. Listen to their stories, because in 40 years, when you are going through those boxes and the memories come back, it will be hard to get rid of those plastic champagne flutes that you and your late husband used at a New Years party 40 years ago. You will think nothing of the tile or the light fixtures that were so important then. As happy as they are for you, and as much as they love you, you just don’t have a clue until it happens to you and then you will remember how you rushed them, and it will make you sad, especially if they are already gone and you cant say I’m sorry, I didn’t get it.’”
Canada #disability benefit severely underfunded in Budget 2024 and Canadians with disabilities will pay the price
Our government faced a pivotal decision before the 2024 federal budget to do something about helping Canadians with disabilities and it didn’t seize the opportunity.
April 25, 2024
The federal government faced a pivotal decision before presenting the 2024 federal budget to do something about disability benefit and “it didn’t seize the opportunity that was before them,” writes Neil Hetherington.
In the lead-up to Budget 2024, a surge of news coverage, advocacy initiatives, and calls to action heightened expectations for the Canada Disability Benefit. Thirty Liberal members of Parliament even issued an open letter urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to prioritize the benefit as a core tenant of liberal social policy.
Daily Bread Food Bank partnered with over 40 organizations across the country — from social and community services to other food banks — to champion the needs of the disability community in Canada and advocate for a fully funded benefit in the budget.
That collective sense of optimism and anticipation was met with profound disappointment upon the budget’s release last week. Although it allocates $6.1 billion over six years to the program, the reality is that support is narrowly focused and insufficient. Only 600,000 of over one million working-age Canadians with disabilities will be eligible, and support is limited to $200 per month, amounting to merely $6.66 a day.
While this program’s objective was to help reduce poverty among working-age Canadians with disabilities, it offers little more than reimbursement for two bags of groceries a month and leaves hundreds of thousands of individuals behind.
Canadians with disabilities didn’t just need a funded Canada disability benefit; they needed a fully funded one that was accessible.
A fully funded benefit would have been adequate in bringing eligible recipients to a minimum of Canada’s official poverty line. One-in-seven people who access food banks nationally rely on provincial disability income support. In many provinces, that means living more than $800 below the poverty line each month.
Furthermore, as of 2017 there were 917,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities living in poverty. Seven years later, estimations are that the number of Canadians who should be eligible for this program far exceed one million. This means that the budget fell short not only in providing enough funding, but also in making the program accessible to all those who need it.
Accessibility of the benefit is also hindered by requiring applicants to have a disability tax credit certificate. The budget allocated $41 million to the administration costs that will be associated with individuals having to visit a doctor to obtain a certificate, placing additional and unnecessary strain on the health care system and those who desperately need this help.
Although this budget was undoubtedly prepared with a series of pre-election strategies in mind, the Liberal government had the political and social license to do more on the benefit.
BillC22, the #Canada #Disability Benefit Act, already succeeded in bringing all political parties together when it was unanimously passed into law by Parliament in June 2023. Further, a recent survey completed by Angus Reid Institute found that over 90 per cent of Canadians support the Canada disability benefit, although only five per cent believed the Liberals would implement it effectively.
The principle of the Canada disability benefit extends far beyond wealth redistribution or being a social safety net. It is an investment in people that has a series of positive ramifications, not only on empowering people with disabilities to live a life of dignity, but also on our economy, health, education, and social systems.
Financial stability leads to numerous positive outcomes, from furthering education and training opportunities to enabling community participation and involvement that fosters sense of belonging.
To the thousands upon thousands of Canadians who advocated for a fully funded benefit, it was never about seeing just another income support program come into effect. It was about extending the type of tangible support to Canadians with disabilities living in severe poverty, helping them overcome its relentless cycle.
As a food bank, we see firsthand the disproportionate impact that the state of our economy has on people with disabilities, experiencing poverty at twice the rate of the general population. Our government faced a pivotal decision before the budget to do something about this and it didn’t seize the opportunity that was before them. But there is still hope.
Organizations across Canada, including Daily Bread Food Bank, will continue to stand alongside the disability community, advocating tirelessly for the Canada disability benefit to achieve its stated purpose of reducing poverty among people with disabilities.
Neil Hetherington is the chief executive officer of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.
At $200 a month, and with many disabled Canadians ineligible, experts say the new Canada Disability Benefit will not relieve poverty
by Meagan Gillmore April 19, 2024
The federal government’s announcement this week about the new Canada Disability Benefit sent Cate Rivers into a flurry of anger, despair, grief — and determination.
“I wish I had words for how I feel today,” she said from her home in Cape Breton, N.S. on Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve laid down and tried to have a nap. I have hugged my cat.”
Rivers, 51, has waited for the Canada Disability Benefit, a national financial benefit for Canadians with disabilities between 18- and 64-years-old, since 2020, when the government first announced it would create one. Rivers, who previously worked in retail and the media, has been unable to work since 2017 due to several autoimmune conditions.
Now, she expects to wait to see if the government will improve its new Canada Disability Benefit.
She spent Wednesday morning writing sample letters people can send to their MPs urging them to improve it. “They’ve got to fix this. It just needs to make more people’s lives better and easier.”
Rivers watched Tuesday’s budget announcement during dinner, her phone propped up against her pepper grinder. She was elated when Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said the benefit was in the budget — “you could have knocked me over with a feather” — but she quickly became enraged at the details.
According to the budget, the maximum benefit amount is $2,400 a year, $200 a month. Only people with the Disability Tax Credit are eligible. The Disability Tax Credit is a non-refundable credit that lowers the amount of income tax disabled people — or relatives who support them — pay. Many people who cannot work because of their disabilities do not apply for the credit because they do not pay income tax.
Canada Disability Benefit payments will begin July 2025. There will be phase-out rates, but they have not been determined.
The budget estimates 600,000 people will receive the benefit. Statistics Canada estimates 27 per cent of Canadians older than 15 have a disability. In 2021, the most recent statistics available, 16 per cent of Canadians with disabilities — 1.5 million people — lived in poverty.
In 2022, the annual amount of provincial social assistance for a single disabled adult ranged from $10,884 in New Brunswick to $21,319 in Alberta, a report from anti-poverty advocacy organization Maytree says. The territories provided more social assistance.
The Parliamentary Budget Office released a report last fall on the benefit. It said the benefit needed to be up to $14,356 to bring disabled people up to the poverty line, depending on their province. It also estimated the benefit would need to be up to $22,701 to lift disabled people out of poverty if accounting for the extra expenses associated with being disabled.
The $2,400 benefit announced in the budget is 16.7 per cent and 10.5 per cent of these figures, respectively.
“Almost no people are going to be affected by this,” said Rivers, who receives the Disability Tax Credit. “Not one person will be lifted out of poverty with $200 a month at a maximum.”
“It is a slap in the face,” said Bret Wills, 39, a part-time writer in Mississauga who has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. Wills receives the Disability Tax Credit. He does not think the Canada Disability Benefit will materially change his circumstances — not when a tank of gas costs him $100. ‘Mostly useless’
Canadian Affairs heard from dozens of Canadians with disabilities. They all shared their frustration with the benefit’s low amount and high eligibility restrictions. Many mentioned it would be easier to qualify for medical assistance in dying (MAID) than to qualify for this benefit.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission has warned about disabled Canadians turning to MAID because of poverty. Many experts say there needs to be more oversight for MAID when people do not have terminal conditions, as Canadian Affairs has previously reported.
Many people contacted for this story critiqued restricting eligibility to those with the Disability Tax Credit.
The credit “is mostly useless unless you work,” said Jeffrey Salisbury, who got the tax credit in 2020. Salisbury, 39, has a developmental disability and depression and has advocated for Ottawa to support disabled Canadians while they wait for the Canada Disability Benefit. He does not have a job. He applied for the Disability Tax Credit so he could open a Registered Disability Savings Plan, a savings account specifically for people with disabilities. Only people with the tax credit can open these accounts.
Rabia Khedr, national director of Disability Without Poverty, a group that advocated for the benefit, echoed these frustrations.
The benefit falls “horribly short of what it needs to be,” she said. “We are heartbroken for all those people that were waiting and now feel hopeless and abandoned and devalued.”
The organization will continue to advocate for improvements to the benefit and for all recipients of provincial and territorial disability assistance to be eligible for the Disability Tax Credit.
“The government let us down,” Khedr said.
“We understand the disability community’s call for more support,” Laurent de Casanove, spokesperson for Kamal Khera, federal minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said in a statement to Canadian Affairs. “We are committed to expanding support for persons with disabilities, including enhancing their financial security.”
Khera’s office did not say how the government plans to do that.
“This moment is crucial as it lays the groundwork to get this benefit into Canadians’ pockets,” the statement says.
The government is budgeting $6.1 billion over six years, beginning in 2024-25, and $1.4 billion annually after that for the benefit. The regulations for the benefit still need to be created.
In a statement, the Department of Finance called the new Canada Disability Benefit “significant.” It said the benefit is meant to supplement provincial and territorial benefits. “Helping Canadians living with disabilities is not something the federal government can do alone.”
Bonita Zarillo, the NDP’s disability and inclusion critic, called the benefit “woefully inadequate,” in a statement. “At $200 a month the benefit doesn’t even cover the cost of groceries let alone rent, medications or other expenses. It’s disappointing that the government is once again failing to live up to their own promises.”
The Green Party decried the benefit in a statement hours after the budget was released, saying it was not adequate.
MP Tracy Gray, the Conservative Party’s disability critic, did not respond to a request for comment. ‘Confiscation machine’
Policy experts have also panned the announcement.
Michael Prince, a researcher on social policy and professor at the University of Victoria, announced on X on Thursday that he had resigned from the federal government’s Disability Advisory Group because of how inadequate the benefit is.
Restricting eligibility to those with the Disability Tax Credit is problematic, says Jennifer Robson, an associate professor in political management at Carleton University.
The Canada Revenue Agency processes the applications and decides who is eligible. But the agency “is not set up to be a benefits-delivery agency,” says Robson. “They are a tax collection agency. They don’t have specialized expertise in the adjudication of the Disability Tax Credit.”
Robson, who advised Disability Without Poverty on benefit design, had strongly advised the government to not restrict the Canada Disability Benefit to people with the tax credit.
Applying for the credit can be expensive. Doctors need to fill out medical assessments at patients’ expense.
The Ontario Medical Association suggests doctors charge a minimum of $150 to complete these forms. Dr. Christopher Leighton, a retired oncologist in Windsor, Ont., says he thinks it is unlikely that doctors would charge more. Some doctors, he says, may not charge fees if they know the patient cannot afford it.
The budget says the government will give $243 million over six years, beginning next year, to offset the doctors’ fees people pay for Disability Tax Credit paperwork.
Department of Finance officials said Wednesday financial eligibility for the Canada Disability Benefit will be determined based on household income, not the applicant’s income.
An applicant could be disqualified from receiving the benefit because of their spouse’s income, Robson says. “If their income counts, it is more likely [the benefit applicant] is going to get bounced above the threshold,” she said.
John Stapleton, a policy consultant in Ontario, agrees the benefit offers too little. And using it to top-up social assistance programs ignores the problems with those programs.
Social assistance programs are a “confiscation machine,” he said. They are reduced if a person works or receives federal benefits, such as employment insurance or the Canada Pension Plan. There needs to be a better program to replace provincial and territorial social assistance programs, he says.
The federal government is urging provinces and territories not to reduce social assistance if people receive the Canada Disability Benefit, the budget says. But, so far, that is not required. Disincentives to work
The federal government “did not prioritize Canadians with disabilities,” Robson said. Ottawa chose to focus on social policies like child-care, dental care and pharmacare. “This benefit became an afterthought.”
The government should encourage disabled Canadians to work, says Renze Nauta, who researches topics related to work at Cardus, a public policy think tank. “The government really needs to ensure that there are not disincentives to work built into the benefit,” he said.
Clawbacks on social assistance can penalize people with disabilities who are able to and want to work, he says.
“There are people who cannot work and for those people, it is important for government to support them to ensure that they can live a dignified life,” he said. More needs to be done to encourage employers to make work accessible for disabled people who can work, he says.
Work increases people’s social connections. The “inherent dignity and value of work should be recognized,” he said.
In Cape Breton, Rivers would take a job “in a heartbeat,” she said. “I feel unfulfilled.”
Advocating for improvements to the Canada Disability Benefit is harder now than she expected. But she is determined to keep trying.
“It’s a battle, not a war,” she says. “I think there’s still progress that can be made.”