Feds Propose New Canada Disability Benefit
June 24, 2021 admin
Benefit would supplement existing federal, provincial/territorial supports
Roughly one-fifth of working-age Canadians with disabilities live in poverty, according to the government. By Jim Wilson
Jun 23, 2021
The federal government has introduced legislation to establish the framework for a new Canada Disability Benefit for working-age Canadians with disabilities.
The benefit would supplement, not replace, existing federal and provincial-territorial supports with a goal of lifting hundreds of thousands of persons with disabilities out of poverty.
Nearly 850,000 (21 per cent) working-age Canadians with disabilities live in poverty, according to the government.
“When the pandemic struck, Canadians with disabilities were hit hard. Many experienced job loss and financial pressures, which increased existing financial insecurity and hardship,” says Carla Qualtrough, minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion.
“This supplementary income benefit would help people to rebound and to fully participate in all aspects of our society and economy. It would address the longstanding financial hardships experienced by persons with disabilities predating the pandemic, and would be an investment in the realization of a fully inclusive society.”
It’s not that organizations are mean-spirited and deliberately exclusionary about people with disabilities, they just need more exposure and information, says one advocate speaking to [...]