Advocates worry federal disability benefit program won't be fully funded in upcoming budget

A coalition of anti-poverty and disability groups are calling on the federal government to honour its commitment to bring the incomes of all provincial disability support program recipients above the poverty line by fully funding a new federal disability benefit program.

Many advocates who cheered on Bill C-22 are now concerned the benefit still won't receive the funding it needs in the 2024 federal budget to make a real difference in the lives of people with disabilities.

Bobby Giles, who is living with schizophrenia and a foot condition that prevents him from working, is one of them. 

The Toronto man currently relies on $1,382 from the Ontario Disability Support Program, a $113 special diet top-up because he is diabetic, a supportive church community and food banks to get by, leaving him little financial freedom to meet basic life needs and wants.

"The system is broken," Giles said on Friday at the Daily Bread Food Bank, in Toronto's west end. "Stable funding for people with disabilities will help curb the food bank usage which is at an all time high … so many people have to choose between paying for rent and food." 

Bill C-22, which passed unanimously in June, was meant to lift people like Giles out of poverty by topping up provincial support funding. But the program hasn't yet been allocated funding or been fully designed, and many are concerned the program won't receive the funding it needs this budget, which is expected to be unveiled in March or April.

Giles says funding the federal benefit property so everyone has enough would give him simple financial freedoms he doesn't have now. Asked what he'd do if he had more money each month to improve his life, he said his dreams were small.

"For me it would be lactose-free milk.… It's like seven bucks."

Neil Hetherington, CEO of Daily Bread Food Bank — an organization leading the charge, says bringing the incomes of disability support program recipients above the poverty line means an allocation of $10 billion to $12 billion in the federal budget. 

Across the country, about a million people are reliant on inadequate provincial disability benefits programs, he says.

Hetherington says the poverty line in Toronto is about $2,300 a month, so if those with disabilities get less than $1,400 a month from provincial benefits, the federal top up needs to be close to $1,000 a month.

A meeting of advocacy organizations with the Department of Finance in December didn't leave Hetherington and his colleagues assured.

Hetherington says Daily Bread and others told the Department of Finance staff that $10 billion to $12 billion was the figure needed.

"They managed our expectations. They said, 'Listen, we are talking about a federal deficit. We need to be thinking at a time of higher interest rates and the cost to service that debt.' The typical commentary that we get around austerity."