The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology released a report on Wednesday urging the federal government to make it easier for Canadians with disabilities to access both the disability tax credit (DTC) and the registered disability savings plan (RDSP).
The committee put forward 16 recommendations in the report, including converting the DTC into a refundable tax credit and introducing automatic enrollment in the RDSP for people who are eligible for the DTC.
“It became clear to the committee that the DTC and RDSP were essential supports for people with disabilities and their families and that more must be done to ensure that people who need and are entitled to these benefits received them,” the committee states in its report, entitled Breaking Down Barriers.
The report noted although while the DTC is an important benefit for Canadians with disabilities, it’s underutilized; only 40% of the more than 1.8 million adults with qualifying disabilities claim the credit. It also suggested that people with certain types of disabilities – for example, those with neurodevelopmental as opposed to physical disabilities – have greater difficulties applying for access to the DTC. The report raised Issues regarding the criteria for DTC eligibility, and the “rigid, complicated, and costly” way the DTC is administered.
Among the recommendations in the report, the committee is asking the government to:
> Convert the DTC to a refundable tax credit from a non-refundable tax credit and to co-ordinate with the provinces and territories to treat income from the credit as exempt for people with disabilities.
> Institute automatic enrolment in the RDSP once an individual becomes eligible for the DTC or for the equivalent of disability welfare payments at the provincial level.
> Develop a guaranteed annual basic income for Canadians with disabilities. “The committee heard clearly that for too long, too many people with disabilities experience persistent poverty. This must change,” wrote the committee in the report.
The committee made several recommendations specific to the DTC program, including:
> Revise DTC rules to better recognize the lifelong nature of certain physical and mental disabilities and eliminate the need for these people to reapply for the credit.
> Revise the DTC eligibility criteria so that impairments in problem-solving, goal-setting and judgment need not be present together to establish eligibility. These critiera should also include work as a basic activity of daily living. Administrative guidelines should better capture the reality of people living with severe disabilities and not be unnecessarily prohibitive.
> Review the current appeals process with a view to creating a straightforward, transparent and informed process in which the applicant has access to all relevant information and documents associated with the denial.
> Limit the fees disability services providers can charge to complete the DTC application and increase funding to non-profit disability community organizations that help people complete applications for the DTC and RDSP.
“Sometimes [people with disabilities] go to private sector consultants [for help] and they get ripped off. A lot of money is looked for by those people,” said Senator Art Eggleton, chairman of the Senate committee. “Now, there are some people in not-for-profit organizations who do help, but maybe the government should do a little bit more to either finance [these organizations] or to make sure that people get the kind of help to fill out the applications and to know about the programs that they don’t otherwise know of.”
Among the recommendations specific to the RDSP, the committee is asking the government to:
> Take the necessary measures to ensure that individuals are able to keep all contributions made to their RDSP for periods in which they qualified for the DTC.
> Begin working with the provinces to reform legislation with respect to legal capacity and representation to ensure that all adults with qualifying disabilities can access the RDSP.
> Reduce — to five years from 10 years — the period between the end of federal grant and bond contributions and the time at which the beneficiary of an RDSP can begin to make withdrawals from his or her plan without having to repay a portion of these federal contributions.
> Broaden the eligibility criteria for the RDSP beyond the DTC so that people with severe disabilities who are eligible for provincial disability support programs are able to participate.
Among other recommendations, the committee is asking the government to shift responsibility for assessing eligibility for the DTC and the RDSP to Employment and Social Development Canada. Currently, the Canada Revenue Agency exercises the right to question the descriptions of impairments made in the DTC application form.
“The people at the CRA are tax collectors. They have a mindset of enforcing the tax code. It’s a different mindset,” Eggleton said. “We suggested Employment and Social Development Canada needed to be more of a part of [the process] in terms of advising on the administration of [the programs].”
The report urges the government to take steps to ensure that the recently reinstated Disability Advisory Committee better reflects the diversity of the larger disability community and is given a broader mandate, including advising the government on administrative, policy and legislative improvements related to the DTC and RDSP.
The committee calls for the development of a strategy to collect and organize data and leverage existing administrative and survey data to evaluate the effectiveness of the DTC and RDSP in reaching their target populations.
The government should study and adopt a participation model, the committee says, in order to create a systematic process whereby people with disabilities, their families and other relevant stakeholders can inform and improve federal programs.
The report also calls for the government to work to harmonize the application processes for disability supports programs.