Bill C-22 will provide income security to Canadians with disabilities, but it needs to be done right
Canada’s first national disability benefit, Bill C-22, received royal assent on June 22, 2023. The bill was reintroduced in 2022 after initially being tabled two years prior.
Bill C-22 remains short on details, but has two notable features. The first is that it will focus on poverty reduction and financial security for working-age persons with disabilities. The second is that it will be delivered through the tax system via changes to the Income Tax Act.
When the bill was reintroduced, then-Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said the bill aimed to create a monthly benefit for working-age Canadians with disabilities modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Qualtrough also said the benefit is designed to fill a significant income security gap that leaves one in four adults with disabilities living below the poverty line.
While Canada does have economic support already in place for persons with disabilities, they aren’t as wide-reaching as they need to be. Canadians with disabilities can apply for the federal disability tax credit on their income tax form if they have certification from a medical practitioner.
However, while about 1.4 million Canadians had obtained a disability tax credit certificate as of 2020, less than 900,000 received any benefit.
This shortfall can be attributed largely to the non-refundable nature of the credit, which means it doesn’t provide benefits to persons with disabilities in families with insufficient taxable income. These are precisely the families that are targeted by Bill C-22. |Read more https://theconversation.com/bill-c-22-will-provide-income-security-to-canadians-with-disabilities-but-it-needs-to-be-done-right-213344| theconversation.com/bill-c-22-…
