Cost Estimate for Bill C-399 “Fairness for Persons with Disabilities Act”

The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) is a non-refundable tax credit for persons with severe and prolonged disabilities.

Most DTC claimants are eligible for the credit based on marked restrictions in their ability to perform the basic activities of daily living. An alternative ground for eligibility, known as “life-sustaining therapy,” is that the person needs therapy to support a vital function at least three times per week for an average of at least 14 hours per week. That time includes time spent determining the necessary dosage of medications. Currently, about 4% of all approved DTC claims are filed under this ground of time spent on life-sustaining therapy.

A Parliamentarian asked the PBO to estimate the cost implications of Bill C-399. Bill C-399:

lowers the number of required weekly hours of life-sustaining therapy from 14 hours to 10 hours,
clarifies that time taken to determine the appropriate dosage of medical food and formula should be counted as part of therapy, and
allows claimants to include time spent on activities directly related to determining dosages of medication which is also related to a dietary or exercise regime.

Using data from a time-use survey conducted by Statistics Canada, the PBO estimates that 35,000 people will become eligible resulting in 22,000 additional claims for each tax year.

Bill C-399 is expected to:

Cost the federal government $39 million annually consisting of:
- $25 million annually in reduced income tax revenue
- $0.4 million annually in working income tax benefit supplements, and
- $13 million annually in Registered Disability Savings Plan related tax and program expenditures which will rise with increasing adoption;
Cost the provinces $9 million annually in reduced income tax revenue; and,
Provide an average of $2,140 in benefits per person for each tax year.

21 November 2017

Federal Support for Low Income Individuals and Families

Approximately 3.2 million to 5.0 million Canadians have low income.

In 2016, the Government committed to developing a poverty reduction strategy. To support parliamentarians in their deliberations regarding this strategy, the Parliamentary Budget Officer initiated a census of all existing federal support and services to low income Canadians and vulnerable groups.

Overall, we identified 75 federal initiatives that provide roughly $57 billion of financial support or services to people with low income and other vulnerable groups in 2017-18—55 programs with expenditures of $39.3 billion and 20 tax expenditures that provided $17.5 billion.
17 April 2018

Costing a National Guaranteed Basic Income Using the Ontario Basic Income Model

This report responds to a request of Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Carleton–CPC) to estimate the cost of establishing a guaranteed basic income program at the national level. PBO takes the policy parameters of Ontario’s basic income pilot project and applies them across the country to estimate the cost of a guaranteed basic income (GBI), and then compares the estimated cost to the current federal support for low income. The annual gross cost of expanding the Ontario Basic Income Pilot across the country would amount to an estimated $76.0 billion in 2018-2019. By 2022-2023, it would reach nearly $79.5 billion.