Proposed Changes to BC Disability Legislation

DISABILITY DEFINITION KEY CHANGES

The disability designation will no longer be permanent. The Minister will have the power to take away a person's disability status.  

Unusual and continuous costs will no longer be part of the definition. Under the current definition, applicants can qualify if they can demonstrate that they have need of assistance or have disability related costs. The cost criteria has been removed. In other words, the amount of money a person may need to spend in the care and management of their disability has no bearing on their application. This will affect, for example, people with soft tissue injuries, people who are HIV-positive, or people who may not need assistance but who have ongoing costs related to their disability.  

The age at which individuals can qualify for disability benefits will be raised from 18 to 19 years. This means that children who have disabilities will have to wait longer to be recognized as adults with a disability. As well, because the new regular income assistance eligibility criteria (April 1^st 2002) prohibit people from receiving assistance for two years after leaving home, a person may have to be 21 years old before they can apply for disability benefits. 

Daily living activity 
To qualify for disability benefits, applicants will have to be directly and significantly restricted in their ability to perform daily living activities. Daily living activities will be defined in the new regulations. This means that there will be specific activities that applicants will need to show that they need help with. For example, the Disability Tax Credit eligibility criteria is restricted to such things as feeding, dressing, and grooming.  

Extensive assistance replaced by significant assistance
The word extensive assistance has been replaced with the word significant assistance. We are concerned that this wording change introduces a more restrictive measure to the criteria.

 

Significant help
Applicants will have to show that they require significant help to perform daily living activities. Significant help may be through the "help or supervision of another person" (current definition), or through "assistive devices." An assistive device is defined as a device that enables an individual to perform a daily living activity. As such, if someone needs help from an assistive animal for example, they will not qualify.

 

"Performing tasks within a reasonable period of time" has been removed. This change means that applicants will not be assessed by the length of time that it takes them to perform tasks independently. Thus, people who struggle to remain independent, despite the difficulty and length of time it takes to perform daily tasks, will not qualify.

One year and likely to recur duration test removed from the definition. This change will have a particular impact on individuals with neurological disabilities, as well as people with cyclical disabilities such as rapid cycling bipolar, depression, and anxiety disorders.    

OTHER RELATED ISSUES

 Ø      All disability benefits recipients will have their ability to work assessed, and some will be required to look for work as a condition of receiving benefits.  

Ø      Grandparenting of medical files for those who become self sufficient through employment will be altered, and will now be a time and means tested benefit.

 Ø      People who are disabled but not receiving a monthly allowance will no longer qualify for enhanced medical coverage.