Update on Federal Disability Benefit by Canadian affairs!

More than two weeks after he was due to receive it, Jeff Musgrave is still waiting for his first payment of the Canada Disability Benefit, a new benefit to support low-income adults with disabilities. 

Musgrave applied for the benefit on June 20, the day applications opened. He has been told he will not receive anything until August.

“I budgeted for them to pay me in July because I naively thought, ‘How can Service Canada bungle this up when I apply on the first day at 6:00 a.m.?” said Musgrave, who sold his smartphone in July to make ends meet. 

“But they showed me how they could bungle it up.” 

Musgrave is not the only one disappointed by the Canada Disability Benefit’s rollout. 

According to the ministry of jobs and families, 98,000 Canadians received Canada Disability Benefit payments on July 17, the date the first benefit payments were due. 

More than 80,000 applications are still being processed, a ministry spokesperson told Canadian Affairs in an email. This figure includes applications received before and after the cut-off date to receive July payments.

Long delay, increasing frustration

The federal government first promised the Canada Disability Benefit in September 2020’s speech from the throne. At the time, it said the benefit would be modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which pays up to about $1,100 a month to low-income seniors.  

The moment was “euphoric,” says Michael Prince, a retired University of Victoria professor who has studied disability social policy for decades. It was a specific policy announcement, rather than the vague promises often found in throne speeches. 

But the lengthy wait for the benefit — and its eventual design — have left many disappointed and angry, he says.

The 2024 budget, which revealed details about the benefit, showed the maximum amount of the benefit would be $200 a month, well below expectations. 

Now that the benefit is being rolled out, disappointment continues.

Karen MacLennan, a 61-year-old single woman in London, Ont., is still waiting to know whether she will receive anything, despite applying for the benefit the first day possible. 

MacLennan has visual impairments and hearing loss and struggles to make ends meet with her part-time job. 

She initially followed the benefit’s creation with excitement. Now, “it just makes me angry,” she said of the waiting and the uncertainty. 

In Toronto, Jeff Musgrave, 55, struggles to cover his living costs with his Ontario Disability Support Program payments. His mental disabilities make it difficult to find a job.

Musgrave has been told by Service Canada that he will receive the full $200 monthly amount. But he will not receive any money until August. Service Canada told him he will receive two $200 payments then instead.

Musgrave always doubted the benefit would reduce disability poverty. 

“I’m really naive in that I think [the government] can do jobs. But I should really know better by now,” he said. The government should have had enough staff to handle the rollout of a new benefit, he says. 

Others are more optimistic about the benefit. 

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In New Brunswick, Shelley Petit calls the benefit a “game changer for some people.” In the U.S., supports for people with disabilities are being cut, notes Petit, who is chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities. 

People in New Brunswick with disabilities who rely on social assistance typically receive around $930, and many less than that. An additional $200 is significant, she says.

The government estimates that 465,000 people will receive the benefit this fiscal year. It estimates that 20,000 people will be lifted out of poverty because of the benefit this fiscal year.

The ministry of jobs and families told Canadian Affairs individuals would have received the benefit on July 17 if their applications were approved by June 30. The government has committed to processing applications within 28 days.

The ministry confirmed that eligible applicants who had not received a July payment would be entitled to two payments in August.

Flawed benefit design

The difficulties with the benefit’s rollout are adding to frustrations many policy experts and disability advocates have long had with the benefit. 

The benefit’s current design “won’t help, in my opinion, with that poverty reduction objective,” said Robin Nobleman, a staff lawyer at the Income Security Advocacy Centre, a legal clinic that helps people who receive social assistance.

The benefit’s design “penalizes” people with disabilities who rely on provincial social assistance, says Nobleman, since the federal government considers social assistance when determining the amount of someone’s benefit. 

The amount a person receives from the benefit is based on household income. The benefit’s formula looks at employment income over $10,000 for single individuals, and adds that to all other income, including provincial social assistance. 

For example, if a single individual with disabilities is unable to work and collects $24,000 in other income, their benefit would be partially clawed back. 

Canadian Affairs spoke with a single mother who applied for the benefit, and whose only source of income is social assistance. Her income is too high to be eligible for the full benefit, because she receives extra provincial support due to having a child with disabilities at home. 

“I’m not in control of legislating how much I receive from provincial disability,” the mother said. Canadian Affairs is not naming the woman because she fears being harmed by a former partner. 

She regularly skips meals so that her daughter can eat. She does not think the $142 she will receive each month from the benefit will enable her to consistently eat three meals a day.  

Determining benefit amounts based on family income can discourage people from living together or getting married, says Nobleman. 

“The government should stay out of the bedrooms of low-income people with disabilities,” she said, noting not everyone has access to their partner’s money. 

“[The benefit’s design] really forces them to choose between accessing the full benefit or having access to companionship. … That’s not a choice the government should be forcing on people.”

In its email to Canadian Affairs, the government explained why it includes social assistance as income for the purpose of benefit calculations.

“When calculating the amount of the Canada Disability Benefit, all sources of income from other benefit programs (e.g. social assistance, CPP/QPP disability benefits, workers’ compensation, etc.) are treated the same,” the email says. 

Advocacy to continue

Rabia Khedr, national director of the advocacy organization Disability Without Poverty, says the organization will continue to advocate for improvements to the benefit. 

Specifically, the organization would like people who receive provincial disability supports to automatically be eligible for the benefit. 

“We will always be advocating [for the benefit to increase],” she said.

Prince, the disability policy expert, says the strength of a country is often shown by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. 

He noted that the federal government moved quickly to pass legislation enabling Canadians with disabilities to be eligible for medical assistance in dying (MAID), even if they are not dying. This led many Canadians with disabilities to say the government was more interested in helping them die than helping them live, he says. 

The way Canadians with disabilities have been treated with this benefit is “not a good look” for Canada, he said.

Still, change is possible. He points to the Guaranteed Income Supplement as an example. It was small when it was introduced as a temporary measure in 1967. Now, it has significantly reduced seniors’ poverty in Canada.

“[Disability groups are] going to have to become more assertive as a political movement or movements and get the attention of political parties federally.” 

But he expects any gains will be small, and will not come for years, possibly decades. 

He knows a long wait for a little increase is not helpful for people struggling to make ends meet. 

But for now, he said, that is one of his “best case scenarios.”