Looking for help with a PWD Application booklet? Our advocates can help!

In order to receive assistance from the Advocacy Access program with a PWD application please ensure that you have met the following three criteria to be placed on our waitlist:

1. Applied for income assistance online at myselfserve.gov.bc.ca.

2. Have a blank PWD Application booklet

3. Have a medical professional (general practitioner, specialist or nurse practitioner) who is willing to support you with the application.

Advocates will schedule an appointment with you and ask in depth questions in order to assess how your disabilities impact your daily living activities in order to accurately assist you with your PWD application. Appointments can be done over the phone or in person depending on the clients preference. Appointments can typically take anywhere from 1-3 hours depending on the medical situation of the client.

Our advocates can support you with section 1 of the application, as well as support your medical practitioner with section 2 and connect you with an assessor for section 3.

You can place yourself on our waitlist to receive assistance by calling 604-872-1278 or by emailing us at advocacy@disabilityalliancebc.org. Please note that our services are in very high demand, and our PWD waitlist is currently roughly 14-18 weeks long.

It has been almost 3 years since the federal government promised to create a monthly Canada Disability Benefit for people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64. This Benefit, when combined with other income supports, aims to lift people with disabilities out of poverty.

Take action to ensure Bill C-22 is passed into law swiftly by joining the #BudgetTheBenefit campaign, led by Disability Without Poverty!

Send a digital postcard to your MP here:
https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca/ask-your-mp/?swcfpc=1

Disability Without Poverty‘s demands are:

• Bill C-22 for a Canada Disability Benefit needs to be passed into law this Spring 2023
• People with disabilities must be engaged in designing the benefit and implementing it in their province
• Fund and rollout the Canada Disability Benefit in 2023. Funding must be adequate enough to lift people with disabilities out of poverty

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction is currently seeking feedback on how to address poverty in B.C. as they update TogetherBC: BC’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. DABC has submitted our written recommendations, which can be found here:

https://disabilityalliancebc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/20230428-DABC-Submission-to-SDPR-TogetherBC-Recommendations.pdf.

In addition to DABC’s own submission, DABC has endorsed Care Not Cops’ submission, which can be found here: FINAL_POVERTY-REDUCTION-SUBMISSION-1.