Government should promise to fix benefit that “doesn’t make a meaningful difference” to recipients

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6 January, 2026

OTTAWA — As the federal government begins 2026, it needs to make at least one new year’s resolution: to fix the Canada Disability Benefit. A new Cardus report, Still Not Enough: How to Fix the Canada Disability Benefit to Really Help Canadians with Disabilities, outlines the dire situation Canadians with disabilities face:

• Working-age Canadians with a severe or very severe disability have an after-tax median income of just $30,590—far lower than the $46,080 average income for Canadians in this age group who do not have a disability.
• The poverty rate for those of working age and with a severe or very severe disability is 18 percent, compared to seven percent for those in this age group who do not have a disability.
• Nearly eight percent of those with a disability experience severe food insecurity, as opposed to just two percent for those without a disability.

The most serious problem with the Canada Disability Benefit is the amount: a maximum of $200 per month, or $2,400 per year.

“The federal government should kick off 2026 by resolving to fix a benefit that’s nice, but just doesn’t make a meaningful difference for people who can’t afford regular, healthy meals or accessible housing,” says Renze Nauta, work and economics program director at Cardus and a report co-author.

The Canada Disability Benefit also has problematic qualification requirements. Anyone receiving the Benefit needs to have a Disability Tax Credit certificate, which has its own complex, expensive, and restrictive application process. This unnecessary hurdle can discourage applications for the Benefit. Meanwhile, it’s possible that provinces may respond to the Benefit by reducing their own disability support programs, meaning an already meagre program could end up providing even less net benefit.

Cardus suggests three broad alternatives for fixing the Canada Disability Benefit:

1. Reform the Benefit by increasing the support it offers. For example, doubling the monthly benefit would bring the program’s cost to around $3.2 billion a year. That’s just one-tenth of the cost of the $31.4 billion the federal government has spent on electric vehicle subsidies to date.
2. Transfer funds to the provinces to target the Benefit more closely to individual needs. This could allow provinces to increase the Benefit’s amount and help to end consistently underfunded provincial social assistance, housing, and healthcare programs for people with disabilities.
3. Support non-governmental institutions to provide tailored, person-centred help. Many Canadian charitable organizations provide critical services such as accessible housing, employment training, and assistive devices, as well as practical support in navigating complex government systems, such as applying for the Disability Tax Credit certificate.

“The federal government has the resources and solutions it needs to really make a difference in the lives of Canadians with disabilities,” says Nauta. “All it needs right now is the resolve to fix a Canada Disability Benefit that is clearly inadequate.”

Still Not Enough: How to Fix the Canada Disability Benefit to Really Help Canadians with Disabilities was co-authored by Renze Nauta and Taylor Jackson, a PhD candidate in the department of political science at the University of Toronto and a former senior advisor to Ontario’s finance minister. Their report is freely available on the Cardus website.

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