Did you know disabled workers can only earn $16,200 a year before they lose access to their disability benefits? And when they lose access to their disability benefits it sometimes can mean they lose access to other entitlements such as housing.

Living Wage Employers who want to do the right thing face a difficult dilemma – do they pay their disabled staff less by offering them fewer hours than their non-disabled peers or do they let their staff lose access to the support they’re entitled to?

We’ve partnered with Living Wage for Families BC and BC Poverty Reduction Coalition on an open letter to Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction Sheila Malcolmson, to ask her to use the upcoming review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy to remove these restrictions and allow disabled workers to earn a Living Wage. 50 other employers have also signed the letter.

Read the letter and share: https://www.livingwageforfamilies.ca/openletter

Press release: https://tinyurl.com/3kykdkpz

In order to make our publications and resources available to more people, Disability Alliance BC has recently had many of our Help Sheets translated into four additional languages (Arabic, Persian, Punjabi and Spanish). Translation services are being carried out by MOSAIC, who is also our partner on our Accessibility for Newcomers project within our Advocacy Access program. Under this project, immigrants and refugees with disabilities have greater access in connecting with advocates for disability support services.

Translation of our Help Sheets would not have been possible without generous funding provided by the Law Foundation of BC. The Law Foundation is also the Advocacy Access program’s primary funder. In addition to financial support to run the program, the Law Foundation is also covering the costs of on-demand, live translation and interpretation services for client appointments with our advocates.

Our BC Disability Benefits Help Sheets are our most popular downloads. These self-help guides explain various benefits and programs, and how to apply for them.

These translations and English versions of the Help Sheets are located at the following link: https://disabilityalliancebc.org/publications/publications-bc-disability-benefits-help-sheets/.

MOSAIC is in the process of translating the remainder of our Help Sheets and our Canada Pension Plan-Disability (CPP-D) Guides into the four languages listed above. Once those translations have been finalized and uploaded, we will send out an additional Community Update and post an announcement on our blog and social media.

Follow us on social media:

X (formerly Twitter): @DisabAllianceBC
Facebook: @DisabilityAllianceBC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/disability-alliance-bc

April 16th, 2024

Today, the federal government released Budget 2024. Included in the Budget is new information about the Canada Disability Benefit Act (CDB), which received Royal Assent on June 22nd, 2023, but has yet to come into force.

Budget 2024 reveals the following updates about the CDB:

• The CDB will likely provide a maximum of $2,400 per year to eligible Canadians with disabilities.
• Only people with disabilities, ages 18-64, who live on low incomes and have been found eligible for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) will be eligible for the CDB.
• Eligible Canadians will likely begin receiving CDB payments as of July 2025.
• The federal government will provide $243 million over six years, beginning in 2024-25, and $41 million per year ongoing, to cover the cost of the medical forms required to apply for the Disability Tax Credit, to expand access to the DTC and therefore the CDB.
• The federal government is calling on provinces and territories to ensure that CDB payments are not clawed back from provincial or territorial income/disability supports.

While DABC is happy to see a timeline for the enactment of the Canada Disability Benefit and the government’s recommendation against clawbacks, we are extremely disappointed to learn about the Disability Tax Credit eligibility requirement and the proposed $2,400/year cap. It can be very difficult for people with disabilities to be approved for the DTC due to its strict eligibility requirements, and $2,400/year is woefully inadequate; it will not lift most people with disabilities who are eligible for the CDB out of poverty.

DABC will continue to provide feedback to the government on the development of the Canada Disability Benefit.

In more positive news for Canadians with disabilities, “Budget 2024 announces the government’s intention to amend the Income Tax Act to make additional expenses eligible for the Disability Supports Deduction, subject to certain conditions, such as:

• service animals trained to perform specific tasks for people with certain severe impairments;
• alternative computer input devices, such as assistive keyboards, braille display, digital pens, and speech recognition devices;
• and, ­ergonomic work chairs and bed positioning devices, including related assessments.”

Read the full Budget plan here: https://budget.canada.ca/2024/report-rapport/budget-2024.pdf.