Disability Supports and Services

New Brunswick has the second highest rate of people with a disability in the country at 35.3%, and many people within this population require disability supports and services to participate in the community in meaningful ways. There is still a substantial number of younger adults with a disability living in institutional settings, including nursing homes, which are meant to serve the needs of seniors in their last years of life. Often, people with a disability lack real choice over where they live and the support that they receive.

What we are advocating for:

• Eliminate the practice of placing younger adults in institutional settings. Develop, adopt, and fund a Home First policy to support adults under 65 with a disability to live where and with whom they choose.
• Support people currently living in institutional settings to move to a home of their choosing in the community.
• Modernize disability services programming and legislation to focus on individualized supports, and choice, control, and autonomy for people with a disability.

Many New Brunswickers with an intellectual or developmental disability rely on Social Assistance for their income, yet they live in deep poverty.

New Brunswick’s Social Assistance rates are the lowest in the country. A single person with a disability receives a maximum $886 per month to meet their basic needs. In addition, New Brunswick has some of the strictest criteria in the country to access provincial disability income benefits, leaving many people to live on basic social assistance of $637 per month.

New Brunswick’s current wage exemption, which is a full exemption on the first $500 of net income earned per month plus a 50% exemption on the balance, is too low.

What we are advocating for:

• Increase Social Assistance rates for people with a disability to a minimum of $1500 per month.
• Develop and implement less restrictive eligibility criteria that is open, fair, and transparent and introduces a right of appeal – available in other provinces.
• Enhance the current policy on employment incentives to increase the wage exemption to a full exemption on the first $800 of net income earned per month, plus a 50% exemption on the balance.

Budget 2024

What was announced for the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB)

1. $6.1 billion over 6 years. This translates to $1.4 billion per year once the program is fully up and running which is expected to be in 2028-2029.
2. Maximum yearly benefit is $2400 per year. This is $200 per month or just $6 per day. Since this is the maximum benefit amount, some people will receive less than $200 per month.
3. Disability Tax Credit (DTC) will be the path to apply for the CDB. The federal government has decided that only people receiving (or who qualify for) the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) will be eligible for the new benefit.
4. The government announced it will cover the cost of what a doctor charges to fill out the DTC medical form.
5. The Canada Disability Benefit is estimated to help 600,000 people, which is less than half the people who need it. In Canada, $1.5 million people with a disability live in poverty.
6. People who qualify for the CDB will start to receive payments in December 2025.
7. The budget called on the provincial and territorial (P/Ts) governments to not reduce (or claw back) people’s existing provincial/territorial disability assistance as a result of receiving the new Canada Disability Benefit. However, there are no agreements in place to prevent P/Ts from reducing (clawing back) the benefit.

What it means:

• This will not lift people with a disability out of poverty. It is not enough to close the poverty gap.
• Using the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) as the way to apply for and get access to the benefit will be very restrictive and many people will not qualify
• Even though the budget has been announced, nothing is finalized. It will still take up to 12 months to finalize all the other rules (called the regulations).
• The government will make public the draft regulations this June.

What we don’t know:

• What the income test will be for eligibility – if it will be based on the total income of everyone who lives in the same house (household income) or if it will be based on the individual income of the person who is applying.
• If it will be taxable.
• How medical expenses for having a doctor fill out necessary medical forms will be paid.

What Inclusion Canada asked for (Versus) what was announced:

• A benefit of $2400/month. Inclusion Canada asked for a combined monthly benefit of $2400 per month (provincial assistance + CDB) = $2400 per month.
• Automatic eligibility for people who current receiving provincial and territorial disability income supports..
• A benefit that is not tied to the Disability Tax Credit (DTC).
• Broad definition of disability based on a social model of disability and not a medical model. For example, based on the more inclusive definition of disability that is in the federal government’s Accessible Canada Act.
• Simple, accessible, and flexible to access and receive the benefit.
• No claw backs or reductions to existing supports.
• Not taxable.

What we are doing provincially:

Inclusion NB continues to advocate for the government of New Brunswick to exempt to demonstrate national leadership by exempting the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) as a source of income for those eligible for provincial/territorial disability social assistance benefits.

Inclusion NB Press release: Read it here