On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is today, December 3, Disability Without Poverty released its second annual 2024 disability poverty report card, assigning Canada a failing grade for its lack of progress in addressing poverty among people with disabilities.
“Today’s report card underscores the failure of the federal government to address disability poverty,” stated national director for Disability Without Poverty Rabia Khedr, in a media release. “A $200 Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) is inadequate. We are calling on the government to triple the benefit in 2025. This will be a better start toward ending disability poverty.”
The federal government proposed funding of $6.1 billion over six years in its last budget, beginning in 2024 to 2025, and $1.4 billion per year ongoing, as well as beginning to provide payments for the CDB to eligible Canadians starting in July 2025.
“This report card finds people with disabilities experience disproportionately higher rates of poverty,” the release stated. “There is a trend across most indicators of rising poverty rates and deeper levels of poverty in 2021 and 2022 after significant reductions in 2020.”
The report’s key findings include: One in six people with disabilities lived in poverty; poverty rates for people with disabilities remain twice as high as those without disabilities; one in three people with disabilities living alone lived in poverty; people with disabilities would need, on average, 30 per cent more income to reach the poverty line.
To read the full report card and principles/recommendations, go to: disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca.
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