Changes to benefit system modeled on systems for seniors and Canada Child Benefit Benefit would replace welfare for working age people with severe disabilities

The  Caledon Institute has presented a proposal, Caledon Basic Income Plan,  to overhaul Canada’s patchwork and failing system of social supports for working age Canadians who are severely disabled and living in poverty.

The new system would prevent the abject poverty that afflicts Canadians with disabilities where a single adult in New Brunswick is subsisting on roughly $8,000 a year, which is less than half of the LICO (Low Income Cut-Off).

This poverty exists despite the billions being spent at the Federal and Provincial levels.

The proposal is comprehensive but not a system that purposes major increases in social spending.

Instead it proposes to use the existing systems, like the Income Tax Act and Canada Pension Disability Benefit, to streamline and reorganize benefits making them more effective in eliminating poverty for working age Canadians with severe disabilities.   Continue reading →