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Heather Thompson would like to work.
The 26-year-old dreams of going back to college to study politics and environmental sciences, and eventually pursue a career to “make things better” in society.
“I am not yet the person I want to be and I want to be able to achieve certain goals and be a well-rounded, well-developed person. But I can’t do that because I live in statutory poverty,” they said.
Thompson is one of 600,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities who the federal government says would help lift them out of poverty with the Canada Disability Benefit, which comes into effect in July. The program is intended to supplement existing provincial and territorial income support.
“We had huge expectations and we had all this hope, like we could finally escape poverty,” Thompson said.
But after last spring’s federal budget showed that people could receive a maximum of $200 a month, the hopes of people like Thompson were dashed. Now advocates are asking the federal government to reconsider the amount in the months before the benefits are rolled out.
Thompson, who uses their pronouns, has worked at Tim Horton’s, Staples and a call center, but said their physical and mental disabilities — including osteoarthritis, which “severely affects” their mobility, along with clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder — have forced them to to leave.
They are looking for work, but many need the ability to lift or stand for long periods of time, which they cannot do. So Thompson lives on $1,449 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and shares a house with three roommates in Kingston, Ontario, along with Thompson’s 12-year-old emotional support cat, Captain Kirk.
Thompson entered college in 2017, but their mental health issues flared and they had to leave after one semester. Seven years later, they are still trying to pay back that student loan.
When Bill C-22, which mandated the creation of a Canada Disability Benefit, was passed into law last year, Thompson was “so excited.”
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A June 22, 2023 federal government press release called the legislation “groundbreaking,” stating that the disability benefit would “complement existing federal and provincial/territorial disability support and lift working-age people with disabilities out of poverty lift. ”
It said the benefit would form part of the government’s “Disability Inclusion Action Plan”, which would “address long-standing inequalities that have led to the financial insecurity and exclusion” faced by people with disabilities.
The government simply hasn’t delivered on its promise, said Amanda MacKenzie, national director of external affairs for March of Dimes Canada, one of the organizations that supported the creation of the benefit.
With a public consultation period on the benefit ending last month, she hopes the government will reconsider and increase the benefit amount in the next budget.
“These are people who, for the most part, have to live well below the $30,000 a year threshold,” MacKenzie said.
“These are the people you hear about all the time who say, ‘I can only have two or one meal a day. I can only afford to take my medication every other day… I can’t support my children. I can’t help my family. “I can’t do anything because, you know, I can barely pay my rent,” she said.
The March of Dimes and many people with disabilities all participated in early government consultations on how the federal benefit could be effective in supplementing provincial disability support programs to provide a living income.
“Who were they listening to?” asked Thomas Cheesman, a 43-year-old from Grande Prairie, Alta., who is receiving provincial disability benefits for a rare condition that causes his bones to break down.
“No person with a disability would say this is an adequate program,” he said.
Cheesman was born with Hajdu-Cheney syndrome and knew he wouldn’t be able to work as long as most people, but managed to work as a chef until he was 39.
At that point, his physical symptoms became so debilitating that he had to quit.
“It was just too dangerous between taking pain medication and being distracted from it or not being able to function because of the pain,” he said.
Cheesman and his wife, who works as a supervisor at Costco, have three children. Before the Canada Disability Benefit came into effect, he “did a lot of math” and calculated that it would have to cost a total of almost $1,000 a month for his family to “live a life outside of poverty.”
In an emailed response to The Canadian Press, the office of Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said it was making a $6.1 billion investment “to ensure the financial security of more than 600,000 individuals with disabilities.” to improve a disability.”
“This is a historic initial investment … and is intended to complement, and not replace, existing provincial and territorial income support measures,” said Khera’s press secretary, Waleed Saleem.
“We also aim to see the combined amount of federal, provincial or territorial income support for persons with disabilities grow to the level of the Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), to reduce the poverty rates people face to be tackled fundamentally. persons with disabilities.”
That would mean people with disabilities would receive a total monthly income equal to what low-income seniors get from the federal government.
MacKenzie said the lack of adequate financial support for people with disabilities is “not okay,” noting that the money they spend goes back into the economy.
“We tell people with disabilities that what they deserve and what we can give them in society is a livelihood. It’s not life,” she said.
For Thompson, that’s “a very difficult pill for me to swallow.”
“A lot of people don’t see us as people. They see us as an attack on society,” they said.
“We are worth investing in.”
Canadian Press’ healthcare coverage is supported through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
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