The recent release of proposed regulations regarding the Canada Disability Benefit Act has B.C. disability advocates scratching their heads in bewilderment and shaking in frustration.
Vancouver Island man Jeff Leggat said he stopped working in 2018 due to his disability conditions of both acute anxiety and depressive disorder. He also lives with intermittent agoraphobia.
Leggat said after reviewing the regulations of the act, he is extremely disappointed as he believes the federal government deems him to be “not disabled enough,” even though the B.C. government recognizes his status and provides him with disability coverage.
He said he is not eligible to receive a disability tax credit, either.
Back in April, the federal government announced the act would help lift thousands of disabled Canadians out of poverty and provide financial support for low-income, working-age people living with disabilities.
The maximum benefit is set at $2,400 annually and is estimated to go to more than 600,000 low-income people with disabilities aged 18 to 64.
However, the plan to offer 600,000 people with the benefit works out to $200 per month, which is about six dollars per day.
Another blow, people must be eligible for the disability tax credit to qualify for the new benefit. Advocates said the tax credit program already excludes many people who are living with disabilities.
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Under the proposed regulations, the income threshold for a single person is $23,000 to be eligible to receive the $200 a month.
Leggat said the six dollars a day, or $200 a month, was “a huge disappointment.”
“It should be eligible for all persons with disabilities, not just the ones that are deemed disabled enough in the federal government’s eyes,” he said.
“I couldn’t leave my house for up to two or three weeks at a time (because) of panic attacks in public. (I’ve had) many, many hospital visits.”
Spencer van Vloten, an editor at BCDisabilty.com, also calls the regulations, and the act in general, a major disappointment.
BCDisability.com is a website that brings the disability community together for discussion, resource sharing and to support one another with issues that people with disabilities face in the community, he said.
“Under the current regulations …(the) $6.66 a day… that may help someone get one of the cheaper items off a fast food menu. But it won’t make much of a dent for people who are living in poverty,” he told Global News.
“People were really hoping that this benefit would transform lives and help people with disabilities thrive rather than just survive.”
Van Vloten said the disabled British Columbians have been waiting years for the benefit to come out, and now that the details are being released, it is causing frustration, disappointment and deflation within the community.
“These regulations are too restrictive. You’re never really escaping poverty because as soon as you start to get ahead, it brings you back,” he said.
Global News has reached out to the federal government regarding the advocates’ concerns.
Next is a three-month consultation period for the proposed regulations.
The federal disability benefit wont be coming until next July.
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