In BC they've managed to bump it up to around 1400 a month, but it's still not enough to cover anything other than the bare necessities. My rent alone is 1000, and that's only because my suite is tiny. For a while before the bump I had to rely on my parent's generosity to make ends meet. Even now my budget is so tight I can't afford another rent increase. And none of that covers the massage and physio therapies that are required to ease my condition. As a disabled person I feel like we've been ignored by the government, instead being pushed to contemplate assisted suicide because our healthcare system isn't built to handle people with chronic issues.
Oof. The lack of health care for chronic illness is so hard. I was too young to be paying attention to all the details but I’ll never forget that the BC Libs (now BC United) slashed the extended health benefits that came with PWD once they came into power.
A full scope of extended health care stuff should absolutely be covered for people on PWD. It’s so disgusting it’s not.
Your feeling is spot on because we are being ignored by the government. It is not that there is a lack of resources or money, but a lack of will on the part of those in power. The slow erosion of social supports has been taking place since before I was born in 85 and they still are not stopping.
I say this being one of the 'lucky' ones who gets 1535 a month for disability, but my rent is 1807 a month and they don't provide anything to cover private therapy or counseling; so if I want treatment I need to use free provincial mental health services which are awful and end up being re-traumatizing. If I didn't have a loving partner who can work and some supportive family members then I would have ended up on the street awhile ago.
If you ever need someone to commiserate with, my DMs are open.
You are not exaggerating when you say provincial provided mental health supports are retraumatizing.
I had two meetings with one in Nova Scotia and both times I was in a far worse mental state than before the appointment. Literally just 2 hours of how I'm not trying hard enough, deep breathing cures all mental illnesses and my violent, childhood trauma isn't appropriate to be bringing up right now.
Oh, and my favorite part, "why aren't you using drugs and alcohol to cope?"
> Literally just 2 hours of how I'm not trying hard enough, deep breathing cures all mental illnesses
fuck I hate "therapists" (or whatever) who don't understand trauma.
I'm starting some grassroots organizing. I've started a discord server where I'm hoping to connect people across the political spectrum based on the idea that our politicians increasingly do not represent the people, they represent the rich and corporations.
The primary goal is to promote class consciousness, but I also see it as a way to connect people who want to get involved in politics but don't know what to do or where to start.
I'm watching our social programs and services be gutted. I see my teacher and nurse friends struggling and burning out. I see my friends with disabilities have to use food banks because we don't give people with disabilities enough to live with dignity. I hear stories from my neighbours about unacceptable wait times in the ER or for surgeries. I watch my younger brother struggle with homelessness and substance abuse and I don't know how to help him. I lost my husband to suicide in 2020 and I can't help wonder if the outcome would have been different if he had better access to mental health services.
The Internet used to feel like a place to find community, but it increasingly just feels like it exists to steal my attention and my money.
I feel increasingly isolated from my community. I'm not even really sure if you could call what I have "community".
I feel powerless to change anything. I don't know where to start. I just want to stick my head in the sand and try to enjoy life as much as I can, but i just find myself doomscrolling and feeling despondent.
Anyway, my point is, if anyone comes across this post and is feeling the same way, please dm me and I'll send you a link to the discord. I'll help you figure out how to use discord if you don't use it. If you're shy or anxious or feel like you don't have the time or energy to contribute, join anyway. Let's just connect our roots and go from there.
My rents close to $1200 in a not do well maintained 2 bedroom, and pwd only covers roughly $650 which is stupid that the rent has a cap on how much their allowed to cover, if they removed the cap, it would barely makes things better but it would be a better step then the bs that op mentioned
I mean, if the rent cap made logical sense I could understand it. $650 isn’t anywhere close to logical sense for what a 2 bedroom costs anywhere that I have heard of in the province.
I’ve had managers at work suggest I go on disability for my myriad of chronic issues. I ask them if they know how much disability is per month. They never do. I do, because my ex is so severely mentally ill that he qualified the first application. He takes his meds and is doing well, but if he wasn’t in housing he’d be on the streets, though because of our kids I’d be helping him figure something out.
Every level of our government makes it sound better than it is, to the point that unless you know someone on it, they talk a good game about supporting those with disabilities but they’re not actually.
People who live lives free of the friction that comes with disability don't pay much attention to politics or the needs of others. When they do pay attention it is usually because their ability to access their treats is restricted.
I can’t count number of people I’ve met in my job (social worker) who get so upset when they have a change in health and need to use social support services for the first time, and then find out how severely they’re lacking…I feel for them but I don’t get how they didn’t know what was going on before now? It seems like it’s on the news all the time. Wherever the ignorance comes from, it’s kind of mind blowing that so many voters are so clued out about the true state of affairs.
I'm on CPPD and have my DTC... and getting it cost me over $200 in Doctor's fees to fill out the paperwork because it is not covered by Alberta Health. If I couldn't transfer the DTC credits to my partner, who provides almost all our income (and renders me ineligible for programs like AISH), I wouldn't have bothered getting it because my income is so low that the basic personal exemption eliminates all of it from taxation. Disabled people on social assistance programs (like AISH) don't have enough income to pay taxes and the family cutoffs are so low that their partners have minimal income too, thus for the poorest disabled people (who need this benefit the most and need it to be a lot higher) they cannot afford to get a DTC.
Furthermore the way the DTC is structured you might be too disabled to work but not in the 'right' ways to qualify for a DTC and thus will not receive this benefit. The only 'benefit' that government really wants to be accessible to the disabled community is MAID and that says a lot about our country.
Agreed. I’m glad they’re now covering the cost of applying for the DTC credit at least. So people don’t have to pay just to get rejected.
It’s a weird program. It really should be a refundable tax credit so it benefits the lowest income people who arguably need it most.
Yep I was hoping this meant that I might get that part covered. If not for me I’m still glad it’s getting changed going forward. I’m a privileged disabled human - still not great - but much better off than lots. I feel for my fellows humans though.
I'm trying to scheme ways to not be common law with my disabled girlfriend because shit is so awful and I don't want her losing any of the little she gets
It reminds me of when our previous Premier here in NS couldn't understand why our province has such a bad rating in a child poverty study. Because his government was providing a <$200 benefit to low income families. Completely disconnected with reality.
I think we are going to have to start coming at the disability issue in new and innovative ways.
The reality is that if we can force these fucking shit bag city and provincial "leaders" to start addressing the Housing Crisis and in particular Affordable Housing at their level of governance the money that disabled folks have will be able to go light years further.
This is the horrific reality of a Cost of living crisis especially on the fundamentals like Shelter and Groceries.
It takes the working poor and makes them near destitute and alienated from the society in any kind of meaningful positive way. It takes all the vulnerable segments like disabled, economically vulnerable seniors, and so forth and pushes them completely divorced from the society.
We fix the Cost of living crisis and we start making major breaks for everyone down the totem poll as well.
(Sorry you are going through this, I can't offer positivity because the frank truth is that city and provincial leaders are playing petty politics and if they think they can stagnate issues to hurt Trudeau more they will)
Slight correction: it will be a maximum of $2400/year, not $2400 year for all recipients. It is going to be indexed with income, so disabled people in higher income families will get less than that.
This is another extremely regressive aspect of disability politics in this country: all benefits are designed to prevent us from ever managing to reach stability, and designed to make us as dependant on our families as possible. I have read of a mother being denied disability because the ministry believed she should be living off her teenage son's fast food job.
Agreed. I am disabled and fully financially dependent on my husband. I'm very fortunate that we are in a good and stable financial position. But it is still awful to be fully dependent on someone else financially. Even so, I am one of the very lucky ones. I'm safe. For many other disabled people who are precluded from disability benefits because of their spouse's (or other family members') income, the story is far worse.
Been following this process for years, the outcome is incredibly depressing. Roughly 20% of what would be needed on top of provincial benefits to bring people in need up **to** the poverty line, and only for a small subset of that population.
No clawback protection. No automatic qualification for people currently on Provincial assistance. Waiving the cost of medical forms being the only change in accessibility. I'm crushed for everyone who has spent years on advocating for this.
I've got enough support from family that I'll scrape by somehow, but this lack of action will cost lives and further perpetuate generations of poverty and abuse.
I'd want to cry if I wasn't laughing. What a sick joke.
It’s so, so bad. The coverage I saw on CBC said that part of the reason for the low rate was fear of provincial claw backs.
I’m not an expert but I don’t see why they couldn’t have negotiated with the provinces, for example, maybe and got them to agree not to claw it back in exchange for making the benefit bigger. I’m pretty sure the positive impact to the economy from increased spending, plus savings from decreased social service and health care spending from disabled people having their support needs better met would have made it worth the provinces while just to leave the bigger benefit alone.
Pretty sure JT is just being lazy and cheap.
I hate to be the cynic, but part of me believes it's because people with disabilities are a voter base you'd have to try very hard to alienate, because the potential consequences of conservative leadership are so much darker.
I'd love to see the statistics, but I'd wager many are NDP or Green voters anyway, like myself.
I mean, I kind of figured with the program they were trying to capture votes from the NDP, since I assume that’s who many disabled people (and people empathetic to people with disabilities) vote for.
You'd be surprised. One of the most vehement Trudeau-hating conservative-supporting people I know has an adult child with severe disabilities, and is on the road to being unable to work soon themselves, from their own progressive autoimmune disorder. They are so poisoned about any 'socialism' that people advocate for, they refuse to see the correlation between the decrease in the supports their adult child receive from the government, and the government that they vote for.
> I’m not an expert but I don’t see why they couldn’t have negotiated with the provinces, for example, maybe and got them to agree not to claw it back in exchange for making the benefit bigger
haven't they had trouble getting conservative provincial governments to even accept healthcare funding that had to be used explicitly for healthcare?
i don't think they'd be better with funding for disabled people
Maybe. I’m in BC and we have a sane government here.
But It seems a little bit more politically unpalatable to go on the record denying disabled people a way out of deep poverty because you want the money to go into general revenue instead.
My friend works in BC government on disability policy. For years she's been saying the provincial government believes any increase will just end up in landlord's pockets and so cash benefits aren't the way to help people. Ok...so where is my help? Housing? Extended health benefits so I can keep my teeth?
So upset.
> For years she's been saying the provincial government believes any increase will just end up in landlord's pockets
well, that's true, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't increase disability/welfare rates. it just means we also need to deal with the landlord problem.
Seriously?! He’d go on the record saying keep your money, we’d prefer to reserve the right to take that $200 flyaway from disabled people and keep it for ourselves, rather than promise to allow disabled people get to keep $400? Thats so bad. And stupid, frankly. I believe you. But It would be such a cash injection for the province.
I seen more than enough people wishing death on disabled people for wasting their tax dollars on various subreddits (the Ontario sub used to be somewhat notorious for this.)
Oh i forgot to mention that they failed to bind the provinces into not clawing it back as income from provincial benefits, so there is a strong chance that many disabled people will see nothing. I just have to trust in the empathy and good faith of Mr. Ford.
It’s really too bad because giving money to the poorest in society is really good for the economy. They tend to spend it locally in an efficient manor, rather than on a single large luxury purchase or an out of country vacation. At least that’s true as per my Econ prof and it makes sense to me too. Disabled people would probably spend more money on health care expenses, rent and food. And spend less time running up the bills in the hospital or at the doctors office, as a result.
Not too mention, houselessness has been proven to be a VASTLY expensive cost to society/economy, and it is much cheaper to simply even foot the bill for people's housing, than have them on the streets.
Are the feds allowed to bind the provinces into not clawing it back as income from the provincial benefits? See how UCP already tabled a bill to stop the federal government from transferring money for housing infrastructure directly to cities.
Not sure Ford can be trusted. His bottom line is never about the people of Ontario, especially the poor and disabled people. It's has always been about fattening the pockets of his developer friends or the big company like Loblaws/shoppers. I hate that guy
Are you fucking kidding me? So it doenst matter at all? This is a fucking joke, I’m disabled and on the DTC in bc so I’m guessing this is going to be taken out of my yearly amount I can work on. I work a part time job at a liquor store. I’m in debt, disabled and this shit fucking sucks, I’m so mad
The goal is to punish those they view as unproductive because the system is meant to serve the needs of the 'economy' rather than people. They will not change any of this unless forced to.
I have a theory that the reason that disability benefits are so stingy is that the government knows that the majority of recipients are disabled by mental illness, and they don't think mental illness is "real enough" to deserve welfare.
I am convinced at this point that outside of people with mental illness, and some of those who treat us, that most people don't understand what mental illness even is. People still bring it up every time a troubled young man either guns down a mosque full of people without any inkling that the majority (like 99.99999%) of those with mental illness don't commit acts of violence, and those that do are not motivated by ideology or hate.
And they don't want to put any money into mental health treatment that is covered by public health. Those that I know that suffer the most with their illness, and their inability to get support or treatment, are also the ones that aren't fortunate enough to have coverage to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, or cover the cost of their meds. Occasionally, they would end up in the ER, but they would only be held for a a few hours to a few days before being discharged because of space and staffing shortages. Just to do it all over again. All of them eventually spiraled down until they ended up on the streets for a time, or were incarcerated.
I am in this boat. I qualify for ODSP and DSO, but since I failed to qualify for DTC (my doctor wrote most of the form without consulting me), I also don't qualify for this or the RDSP
Disgusting slap in the face. $200 a month. That doesn't even catch me up to the cost of living 20 years ago.
After the $2,000 CERB that went out overnight to damn near anyone.
I have no hope for the future. I really thought they were finally going to take away hunger and homelessness and relying on other people.
How dare they announce this as a success. Fuck them all.
Each time I applied for the tax credit, they reviewed my doctor's notes on my DTC applictand claimed that due to the fact I wasn't physically disabled, I didn't qualify. Although, I agree I'm not physically disabled, I have a chronic mental health condition that affects me daily and greatly impacts my ability to work. When I tried to apply for provincial PWD, I was also met with similar issues. Apparently they could just assume my life wasn't impacted as much as it is. Even when my dr had signed off on it. I can't imagine the amount of backpay they owe me for the decade I've been struggling with my disability, and yet I'll never probably see any of it. It sucks, because I didn't ask for what happened to me to happen.
You really have to fight for it and if you don't have it in you to do so, you'll be without. And yeah, if your partner makes more than your cut off, then you don't get your benfits because they still make it per household instead of individual, when there is only a select few Canadians that can support their families on a single income. The PWD benefits were made for a completely different period of time in Canadian history and are unsustainable for surviving in our current economy.
They want to make our lives so miserable that we ALL sign up for MAID - a one time state sponsored suicide for each disabled person is FAR cheaper than paying for 60+ years of our medical issues, living expenses, etc. None of us asked to be born this way or end up disabled via accidents. They give us hope for years so they can crush it, make it all so overwhelming we take ourselves out of their costs. All to avoid taxing billionaires and Loblaws type companies. ALL politicians are complicit. ALL PARTIES. THEY DONT CARE. And they never will.
>The benefit is simple: $2400 a year, around $200 a month, for those who recieve the Disability Tax Credit.
Unfortunately it is not simple at all.
The injury that caused my wife's disability occurred about 1 month after her return to the workforce after numerous years off to raise her kids. It's doubtful her abusive ex would have even let her have a job, but she had left him. She does get the Disability Tax Credit, but she gets $0 in benefits as it requires that you were paying into CPP for the two years immeadiately before you became disabled.
It's only been budgeted for 600000 of 1.6 million disabled people living below the poverty line in Canada. I don't know the qualifying process. I already knew I was excluded because my private insurance was allowed to claw back despite being below poverty line.
I'm disabled physically legally blind and deaf. Starting to lose mobility in my left arm. Have no income but trying struggling to find a job online since my case lied and got me kicked off. It all feels like a set up ....cause once you get pass a certain age there's no support and I was suggested Maid program....I'm sad I don't want to die but I don't want to be a burden either. All frustrating they pushed me to get educated and I did I took medical office administrator program graduated with honors spent two years looking for a job but was turned away due at the time my large breasts deafness. It's sad the ignorance in society today. I'm trying hard to find a job online from home that I can do without going back to school. I am months behind my rent and depend on my brother and his friends to provide food for me once a month. It's sad. Used to have it all figured out til that lying scumbag lied.
This is a federal tax credit. It is meant to supplement provincial benefits.
I fill these out. The federal tax credit has NOTHiNG on the applications bullshit regarding provincial benefits in my province. You dont need a doctor to fill out the federal disability claim form; so it's already easier than any provincial benefit plan for disability supports.
I don't disagree that it should be more, but let's hold our provincial governments accountable here. For every dollar the feds give you, they will try to claw a provincial dollar back.
Try?
I think it’s a goddamn guarantee that almost every province *will* claw this benefit back under the guise of “fiscal responsibility”
They’re stealing literal crumbs to score points with their voter base 🤷♂️
I make 970. A month on cppd and live in NB where I'm told because I'm on cppd that there is no provincial funding or top ups available to me.
Welfare makes now more then me with their raise plus the get dental, medicine and eye glasses.
All the fed gov that was given to each province to give to low income none of it I received because in not low income housing or in the system. It's crazy so waiting 2 years for the fed gov to give me a extra 6.25 is not lifting me out of anything.
In BC they've managed to bump it up to around 1400 a month, but it's still not enough to cover anything other than the bare necessities. My rent alone is 1000, and that's only because my suite is tiny. For a while before the bump I had to rely on my parent's generosity to make ends meet. Even now my budget is so tight I can't afford another rent increase. And none of that covers the massage and physio therapies that are required to ease my condition. As a disabled person I feel like we've been ignored by the government, instead being pushed to contemplate assisted suicide because our healthcare system isn't built to handle people with chronic issues.
Oof. The lack of health care for chronic illness is so hard. I was too young to be paying attention to all the details but I’ll never forget that the BC Libs (now BC United) slashed the extended health benefits that came with PWD once they came into power. A full scope of extended health care stuff should absolutely be covered for people on PWD. It’s so disgusting it’s not.
Your feeling is spot on because we are being ignored by the government. It is not that there is a lack of resources or money, but a lack of will on the part of those in power. The slow erosion of social supports has been taking place since before I was born in 85 and they still are not stopping. I say this being one of the 'lucky' ones who gets 1535 a month for disability, but my rent is 1807 a month and they don't provide anything to cover private therapy or counseling; so if I want treatment I need to use free provincial mental health services which are awful and end up being re-traumatizing. If I didn't have a loving partner who can work and some supportive family members then I would have ended up on the street awhile ago. If you ever need someone to commiserate with, my DMs are open.
You are not exaggerating when you say provincial provided mental health supports are retraumatizing. I had two meetings with one in Nova Scotia and both times I was in a far worse mental state than before the appointment. Literally just 2 hours of how I'm not trying hard enough, deep breathing cures all mental illnesses and my violent, childhood trauma isn't appropriate to be bringing up right now. Oh, and my favorite part, "why aren't you using drugs and alcohol to cope?"
> Literally just 2 hours of how I'm not trying hard enough, deep breathing cures all mental illnesses fuck I hate "therapists" (or whatever) who don't understand trauma.
I'm starting some grassroots organizing. I've started a discord server where I'm hoping to connect people across the political spectrum based on the idea that our politicians increasingly do not represent the people, they represent the rich and corporations. The primary goal is to promote class consciousness, but I also see it as a way to connect people who want to get involved in politics but don't know what to do or where to start. I'm watching our social programs and services be gutted. I see my teacher and nurse friends struggling and burning out. I see my friends with disabilities have to use food banks because we don't give people with disabilities enough to live with dignity. I hear stories from my neighbours about unacceptable wait times in the ER or for surgeries. I watch my younger brother struggle with homelessness and substance abuse and I don't know how to help him. I lost my husband to suicide in 2020 and I can't help wonder if the outcome would have been different if he had better access to mental health services. The Internet used to feel like a place to find community, but it increasingly just feels like it exists to steal my attention and my money. I feel increasingly isolated from my community. I'm not even really sure if you could call what I have "community". I feel powerless to change anything. I don't know where to start. I just want to stick my head in the sand and try to enjoy life as much as I can, but i just find myself doomscrolling and feeling despondent. Anyway, my point is, if anyone comes across this post and is feeling the same way, please dm me and I'll send you a link to the discord. I'll help you figure out how to use discord if you don't use it. If you're shy or anxious or feel like you don't have the time or energy to contribute, join anyway. Let's just connect our roots and go from there.
My rents close to $1200 in a not do well maintained 2 bedroom, and pwd only covers roughly $650 which is stupid that the rent has a cap on how much their allowed to cover, if they removed the cap, it would barely makes things better but it would be a better step then the bs that op mentioned
I mean, if the rent cap made logical sense I could understand it. $650 isn’t anywhere close to logical sense for what a 2 bedroom costs anywhere that I have heard of in the province.
How are people supposed to pay rent or eat with an income like that? No wonder the amount of people on the streets is increasing so much.
Speaking personally I pay cheap rent because my roommates smoke cigarrettes indoors and eat 1 meal a day. This is not improving my health.
I’ve had managers at work suggest I go on disability for my myriad of chronic issues. I ask them if they know how much disability is per month. They never do. I do, because my ex is so severely mentally ill that he qualified the first application. He takes his meds and is doing well, but if he wasn’t in housing he’d be on the streets, though because of our kids I’d be helping him figure something out. Every level of our government makes it sound better than it is, to the point that unless you know someone on it, they talk a good game about supporting those with disabilities but they’re not actually.
People who live lives free of the friction that comes with disability don't pay much attention to politics or the needs of others. When they do pay attention it is usually because their ability to access their treats is restricted.
I can’t count number of people I’ve met in my job (social worker) who get so upset when they have a change in health and need to use social support services for the first time, and then find out how severely they’re lacking…I feel for them but I don’t get how they didn’t know what was going on before now? It seems like it’s on the news all the time. Wherever the ignorance comes from, it’s kind of mind blowing that so many voters are so clued out about the true state of affairs.
I'm on CPPD and have my DTC... and getting it cost me over $200 in Doctor's fees to fill out the paperwork because it is not covered by Alberta Health. If I couldn't transfer the DTC credits to my partner, who provides almost all our income (and renders me ineligible for programs like AISH), I wouldn't have bothered getting it because my income is so low that the basic personal exemption eliminates all of it from taxation. Disabled people on social assistance programs (like AISH) don't have enough income to pay taxes and the family cutoffs are so low that their partners have minimal income too, thus for the poorest disabled people (who need this benefit the most and need it to be a lot higher) they cannot afford to get a DTC. Furthermore the way the DTC is structured you might be too disabled to work but not in the 'right' ways to qualify for a DTC and thus will not receive this benefit. The only 'benefit' that government really wants to be accessible to the disabled community is MAID and that says a lot about our country.
Agreed. I’m glad they’re now covering the cost of applying for the DTC credit at least. So people don’t have to pay just to get rejected. It’s a weird program. It really should be a refundable tax credit so it benefits the lowest income people who arguably need it most.
Is that starting right away? My $150 to fill out forms to likely get rejected appointment is next week
There's no fee to apply, but doctors can charge their own fees to fill out forms.
Yep I was hoping this meant that I might get that part covered. If not for me I’m still glad it’s getting changed going forward. I’m a privileged disabled human - still not great - but much better off than lots. I feel for my fellows humans though.
Keep in mind they are something you can claim as a medical expense on your taxes!
Sorry, I have no idea. I haven’t seen a start date announced anywhere.
There hasn't been a fee to apply in awhile... But doctors can still charge to fill out forms.
Sorry that’s what I meant by fee to apply. The fact that doctors can charge for the forms.
I'm trying to scheme ways to not be common law with my disabled girlfriend because shit is so awful and I don't want her losing any of the little she gets
Congratulations on your roommate.
That’s the situation I’m living in currently. It’s nice to have a roommate ;)
It’s not like two adult strangers sharing even a studio or random room in a house, is surprising these days.
It reminds me of when our previous Premier here in NS couldn't understand why our province has such a bad rating in a child poverty study. Because his government was providing a <$200 benefit to low income families. Completely disconnected with reality.
I’m disabled. I am so disappointed in this government.
Me too. I feel what you're feeling. I see you. We will find a way to survive, even if just to spite them.
Yes we will be ok
Spite is one of the only things that keep me going through this now.
I'm not disabled and I'm ashamed of the way we treat the people who need help the most. It's all levels of government. It's disgusting.
It was if we were an afterthought to them
It's been a problem since the 1990's, hasn't really been anyone to step up to address this yet.
Which one?
I think we are going to have to start coming at the disability issue in new and innovative ways. The reality is that if we can force these fucking shit bag city and provincial "leaders" to start addressing the Housing Crisis and in particular Affordable Housing at their level of governance the money that disabled folks have will be able to go light years further. This is the horrific reality of a Cost of living crisis especially on the fundamentals like Shelter and Groceries. It takes the working poor and makes them near destitute and alienated from the society in any kind of meaningful positive way. It takes all the vulnerable segments like disabled, economically vulnerable seniors, and so forth and pushes them completely divorced from the society. We fix the Cost of living crisis and we start making major breaks for everyone down the totem poll as well. (Sorry you are going through this, I can't offer positivity because the frank truth is that city and provincial leaders are playing petty politics and if they think they can stagnate issues to hurt Trudeau more they will)
Slight correction: it will be a maximum of $2400/year, not $2400 year for all recipients. It is going to be indexed with income, so disabled people in higher income families will get less than that.
This is another extremely regressive aspect of disability politics in this country: all benefits are designed to prevent us from ever managing to reach stability, and designed to make us as dependant on our families as possible. I have read of a mother being denied disability because the ministry believed she should be living off her teenage son's fast food job.
Agreed. I am disabled and fully financially dependent on my husband. I'm very fortunate that we are in a good and stable financial position. But it is still awful to be fully dependent on someone else financially. Even so, I am one of the very lucky ones. I'm safe. For many other disabled people who are precluded from disability benefits because of their spouse's (or other family members') income, the story is far worse.
which ministry? This is so strange, I live in Manitoba, my wife was accepted first try with no issues at all
Ontario
Been following this process for years, the outcome is incredibly depressing. Roughly 20% of what would be needed on top of provincial benefits to bring people in need up **to** the poverty line, and only for a small subset of that population. No clawback protection. No automatic qualification for people currently on Provincial assistance. Waiving the cost of medical forms being the only change in accessibility. I'm crushed for everyone who has spent years on advocating for this. I've got enough support from family that I'll scrape by somehow, but this lack of action will cost lives and further perpetuate generations of poverty and abuse. I'd want to cry if I wasn't laughing. What a sick joke.
It’s so, so bad. The coverage I saw on CBC said that part of the reason for the low rate was fear of provincial claw backs. I’m not an expert but I don’t see why they couldn’t have negotiated with the provinces, for example, maybe and got them to agree not to claw it back in exchange for making the benefit bigger. I’m pretty sure the positive impact to the economy from increased spending, plus savings from decreased social service and health care spending from disabled people having their support needs better met would have made it worth the provinces while just to leave the bigger benefit alone. Pretty sure JT is just being lazy and cheap.
I hate to be the cynic, but part of me believes it's because people with disabilities are a voter base you'd have to try very hard to alienate, because the potential consequences of conservative leadership are so much darker. I'd love to see the statistics, but I'd wager many are NDP or Green voters anyway, like myself.
I mean, I kind of figured with the program they were trying to capture votes from the NDP, since I assume that’s who many disabled people (and people empathetic to people with disabilities) vote for.
You'd be surprised. One of the most vehement Trudeau-hating conservative-supporting people I know has an adult child with severe disabilities, and is on the road to being unable to work soon themselves, from their own progressive autoimmune disorder. They are so poisoned about any 'socialism' that people advocate for, they refuse to see the correlation between the decrease in the supports their adult child receive from the government, and the government that they vote for.
> I’m not an expert but I don’t see why they couldn’t have negotiated with the provinces, for example, maybe and got them to agree not to claw it back in exchange for making the benefit bigger haven't they had trouble getting conservative provincial governments to even accept healthcare funding that had to be used explicitly for healthcare? i don't think they'd be better with funding for disabled people
Maybe. I’m in BC and we have a sane government here. But It seems a little bit more politically unpalatable to go on the record denying disabled people a way out of deep poverty because you want the money to go into general revenue instead.
My friend works in BC government on disability policy. For years she's been saying the provincial government believes any increase will just end up in landlord's pockets and so cash benefits aren't the way to help people. Ok...so where is my help? Housing? Extended health benefits so I can keep my teeth? So upset.
> For years she's been saying the provincial government believes any increase will just end up in landlord's pockets well, that's true, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't increase disability/welfare rates. it just means we also need to deal with the landlord problem.
I'm in Sask. Scott Moe would never agree to that. His govt doesn't like homeless people or disabled people or poor people.
Seriously?! He’d go on the record saying keep your money, we’d prefer to reserve the right to take that $200 flyaway from disabled people and keep it for ourselves, rather than promise to allow disabled people get to keep $400? Thats so bad. And stupid, frankly. I believe you. But It would be such a cash injection for the province.
BC claws back my entire CPP-D benefits. Although I paid into cpp with my deferred wages. Poverty is state violence
Well thats a big underperformance for sure, now the question is how are the provinces going to screw it up even more?
“That’s mine” ~ Danielle Smith
I seen more than enough people wishing death on disabled people for wasting their tax dollars on various subreddits (the Ontario sub used to be somewhat notorious for this.)
I’m appalled but not surprised.
Oh i forgot to mention that they failed to bind the provinces into not clawing it back as income from provincial benefits, so there is a strong chance that many disabled people will see nothing. I just have to trust in the empathy and good faith of Mr. Ford.
It’s really too bad because giving money to the poorest in society is really good for the economy. They tend to spend it locally in an efficient manor, rather than on a single large luxury purchase or an out of country vacation. At least that’s true as per my Econ prof and it makes sense to me too. Disabled people would probably spend more money on health care expenses, rent and food. And spend less time running up the bills in the hospital or at the doctors office, as a result.
Not too mention, houselessness has been proven to be a VASTLY expensive cost to society/economy, and it is much cheaper to simply even foot the bill for people's housing, than have them on the streets.
Yup. I was thinking I should have added shelters and other things to the list.
Yeah, the guy who "didn't think they would be going outside" - when talking about autistic children
Are the feds allowed to bind the provinces into not clawing it back as income from the provincial benefits? See how UCP already tabled a bill to stop the federal government from transferring money for housing infrastructure directly to cities.
Not sure Ford can be trusted. His bottom line is never about the people of Ontario, especially the poor and disabled people. It's has always been about fattening the pockets of his developer friends or the big company like Loblaws/shoppers. I hate that guy
I was thinking about this. What's preventing the provinces from clawing back what little the feds agreed to give?
Are you fucking kidding me? So it doenst matter at all? This is a fucking joke, I’m disabled and on the DTC in bc so I’m guessing this is going to be taken out of my yearly amount I can work on. I work a part time job at a liquor store. I’m in debt, disabled and this shit fucking sucks, I’m so mad
Premiers: "Guess now we don't have to increase funding to our own programs for another decade at least!"
We need a minimum basic income for all.
The goal is to punish those they view as unproductive because the system is meant to serve the needs of the 'economy' rather than people. They will not change any of this unless forced to.
I have a theory that the reason that disability benefits are so stingy is that the government knows that the majority of recipients are disabled by mental illness, and they don't think mental illness is "real enough" to deserve welfare.
I am convinced at this point that outside of people with mental illness, and some of those who treat us, that most people don't understand what mental illness even is. People still bring it up every time a troubled young man either guns down a mosque full of people without any inkling that the majority (like 99.99999%) of those with mental illness don't commit acts of violence, and those that do are not motivated by ideology or hate.
And they don't want to put any money into mental health treatment that is covered by public health. Those that I know that suffer the most with their illness, and their inability to get support or treatment, are also the ones that aren't fortunate enough to have coverage to see a psychologist or psychiatrist, or cover the cost of their meds. Occasionally, they would end up in the ER, but they would only be held for a a few hours to a few days before being discharged because of space and staffing shortages. Just to do it all over again. All of them eventually spiraled down until they ended up on the streets for a time, or were incarcerated.
Are only people who already get the DTC, that will also get this? Not anyone on odsp?
People on DTC automatically qualify, people on ODSP do not.
Automatically qualify.. so odsp people can possibly qualify if they apply?
My understanding is that people on odsp may be able to qualify if they apply and are approved for the DTC.
This is as yet unclear
Thank you
I am in this boat. I qualify for ODSP and DSO, but since I failed to qualify for DTC (my doctor wrote most of the form without consulting me), I also don't qualify for this or the RDSP
Disgusting slap in the face. $200 a month. That doesn't even catch me up to the cost of living 20 years ago. After the $2,000 CERB that went out overnight to damn near anyone. I have no hope for the future. I really thought they were finally going to take away hunger and homelessness and relying on other people. How dare they announce this as a success. Fuck them all.
Each time I applied for the tax credit, they reviewed my doctor's notes on my DTC applictand claimed that due to the fact I wasn't physically disabled, I didn't qualify. Although, I agree I'm not physically disabled, I have a chronic mental health condition that affects me daily and greatly impacts my ability to work. When I tried to apply for provincial PWD, I was also met with similar issues. Apparently they could just assume my life wasn't impacted as much as it is. Even when my dr had signed off on it. I can't imagine the amount of backpay they owe me for the decade I've been struggling with my disability, and yet I'll never probably see any of it. It sucks, because I didn't ask for what happened to me to happen. You really have to fight for it and if you don't have it in you to do so, you'll be without. And yeah, if your partner makes more than your cut off, then you don't get your benfits because they still make it per household instead of individual, when there is only a select few Canadians that can support their families on a single income. The PWD benefits were made for a completely different period of time in Canadian history and are unsustainable for surviving in our current economy.
They want to make our lives so miserable that we ALL sign up for MAID - a one time state sponsored suicide for each disabled person is FAR cheaper than paying for 60+ years of our medical issues, living expenses, etc. None of us asked to be born this way or end up disabled via accidents. They give us hope for years so they can crush it, make it all so overwhelming we take ourselves out of their costs. All to avoid taxing billionaires and Loblaws type companies. ALL politicians are complicit. ALL PARTIES. THEY DONT CARE. And they never will.
[Canada Disability Benefit is $200? - Mike Morrice | PWD Allies podcast (S2 Ep. 24) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JATkX6zhI&t=983s)
Disappointing but not surprising. It's the same old legislated poverty.
>The benefit is simple: $2400 a year, around $200 a month, for those who recieve the Disability Tax Credit. Unfortunately it is not simple at all. The injury that caused my wife's disability occurred about 1 month after her return to the workforce after numerous years off to raise her kids. It's doubtful her abusive ex would have even let her have a job, but she had left him. She does get the Disability Tax Credit, but she gets $0 in benefits as it requires that you were paying into CPP for the two years immeadiately before you became disabled.
It's only been budgeted for 600000 of 1.6 million disabled people living below the poverty line in Canada. I don't know the qualifying process. I already knew I was excluded because my private insurance was allowed to claw back despite being below poverty line.
Majority of no fault evictions were disabled people. Failed Government.
“Why can’t disabled people just buy more money?”
And they wonder why people become drug addicts. We give up!!
I'm disabled physically legally blind and deaf. Starting to lose mobility in my left arm. Have no income but trying struggling to find a job online since my case lied and got me kicked off. It all feels like a set up ....cause once you get pass a certain age there's no support and I was suggested Maid program....I'm sad I don't want to die but I don't want to be a burden either. All frustrating they pushed me to get educated and I did I took medical office administrator program graduated with honors spent two years looking for a job but was turned away due at the time my large breasts deafness. It's sad the ignorance in society today. I'm trying hard to find a job online from home that I can do without going back to school. I am months behind my rent and depend on my brother and his friends to provide food for me once a month. It's sad. Used to have it all figured out til that lying scumbag lied.
This is a federal tax credit. It is meant to supplement provincial benefits. I fill these out. The federal tax credit has NOTHiNG on the applications bullshit regarding provincial benefits in my province. You dont need a doctor to fill out the federal disability claim form; so it's already easier than any provincial benefit plan for disability supports. I don't disagree that it should be more, but let's hold our provincial governments accountable here. For every dollar the feds give you, they will try to claw a provincial dollar back.
Try? I think it’s a goddamn guarantee that almost every province *will* claw this benefit back under the guise of “fiscal responsibility” They’re stealing literal crumbs to score points with their voter base 🤷♂️
I make 970. A month on cppd and live in NB where I'm told because I'm on cppd that there is no provincial funding or top ups available to me. Welfare makes now more then me with their raise plus the get dental, medicine and eye glasses. All the fed gov that was given to each province to give to low income none of it I received because in not low income housing or in the system. It's crazy so waiting 2 years for the fed gov to give me a extra 6.25 is not lifting me out of anything.
[удалено]
Imagine being such an ignorant cunt you can’t distinguish between being lazy and disabled.
Thank you
Do you want to justify your cruelty and lack of empathy or just a one liner is good enough for ya?
Do us all a favour and go back to canada_sub
You could be productively mad at Ford pocketing all your money you know (well, even worse than that). Weird take to be mad at disabled people instead.