Heather Thompson, pictured with their emotional support cat Captain Kirk in this recent handout photo, hoped the Canada Disability Benefit would help them out of poverty, but that hope has been dashed. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Heather Thompson

TORONTO - Heather Thompson would love to work.

The 26-year-old dreams of going back to university to study politics and environmental science, and ultimately pursue a career to "try and make things better" in society.

"I'm not the person I want to be yet and I want to be able to achieve certain goals and be a well-rounded, well developed person. But I'm prevented from doing that because I live in legislated poverty,” they said.

Thompson is one of 600,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities that the federal government said it would help lift out of poverty with the Canada Disability Benefit, which takes effect next July. The program is meant as a top-up to existing provincial and territorial income supports.

"We had huge expectations and we had all this hope, like finally we can escape poverty," Thompson said.

But after last spring's federal budget revealed that the maximum people will receive per month is $200, the hopes of people like Thompson were dashed. Now, advocates are asking the federal government to reconsider the amount in the months before the benefit rolls out.

Thompson, who uses they/them pronouns, has worked at Tim Horton's, Staples and a call centre, but said their physical and mental disabilities — including osteoarthritis, which "heavily impacts" their mobility, along with clinical depression and generalized anxiety disorder — have forced them to leave.

They look for jobs, but many require the ability to lift or stand for long periods, which they can't do. So Thompson lives on $1,449 a month from the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and shares a house with three roommates in Kingston, Ont., along with Thompson's 12-year-old emotional support cat, Captain Kirk.

Thompson went to university in 2017, but their mental health issues flared and they had to leave after a semester. Seven years later, they're still trying to pay that student loan back.

When Bill C-22, which mandated the creation of a Canada Disability Benefit, was passed into law last year, Thompson was "so excited."

A news release issued by the federal government on June 22, 2023 called the legislation "groundbreaking," saying the disability benefit would “supplement existing federal and provincial/territorial disability supports, and will help lift working-age persons with disabilities out of poverty."

It said the benefit would be part of the government's "disability inclusion action plan" that would "address longstanding inequities that have led to the financial insecurity and exclusion" experienced by people with disabilities.

The government simply hasn't lived up to its promise, said Amanda MacKenzie, national director of external affairs for March of Dimes Canada, one of the organizations that supported the creation of the benefit.

Now that a public consultation period on the benefit ended last month, she is hoping the government will reconsider and increase the benefit amount in its next budget.

”These are people that are living well under the $30,000 a year mark, for the most part," MacKenzie said.

"These are the people that you hear about all the time that are saying, 'I can only have two or one meal a day. I can only afford to take my medication every other day ... I can't support my kids. I can't help my family. I can't do anything because you know, I can barely pay my rent,'" she said.

March of Dimes Canada and many people with disabilities all participated in early government consultations about how the federal benefit could be effective in topping up provincial disability support programs to provide a livable income.

”Who were they listening to?" asked Thomas Cheesman, a 43-year-old in Grande Prairie, Alta., receiving provincial disability benefits due to a rare disorder that causes his bones to break down.

"Not one single disabled person would say that this is an adequate program," he said.

Cheesman was born with Hajdu-Cheney Syndrome and knew he wouldn't be able to work as long as most people, but managed to work as a chef until he was 39.

At that point, his physical symptoms became so debilitating he had to stop.

“It was just too dangerous between either taking medications to handle pain and being distracted from that, or not being able to function because of the pain," he said.

Cheesman and his wife, who works as a supervisor at Costco, have three children. Before the Canada Disability Benefit became law, he "did a lot of math" and calculated it would need to total almost $1,000 a month for his family "to have a life outside of poverty."

In an emailed response to The Canadian Press, the office of Kamal Khera, minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities, said it was making a $6.1-billion investment "to improve the financial security of over 600,000 persons with disabilities."

"This is a historic initial investment ... and is intended to supplement, not replace, existing provincial and territorial income support measures," said Khera's press secretary, Waleed Saleem.

"We also aspire to see the combined amount of federal and provincial or territorial income supports for persons with disabilities grow to the level of Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), to fundamentally address the rates of poverty experienced by persons with disabilities."

That would mean people with disabilities would get a total monthly income equal to what low-income seniors get from the federal government.

MacKenzie said the lack of adequate financial support for people with disabilities is "not OK," noting that the money they spend goes back into the economy.

"We tell people with disabilities that what they deserve and what we can afford to give them in society is an existence. It's not a life,” she said.

For Thompson, that's "a really hard pill for me to swallow."

”A lot of people don't see us as human. They see us as a drain on society," they said.

”We're worth investing in."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2024.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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