Canada Disability Benefit Supplemental Payment for Disability Tax Credit Certifications
Budget 2025 proposes a one-time supplemental Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) payment of $150 for each Disability Tax Credit (DTC) certification, or re-certification, that leads to the qualification of a CDB entitlement. PBO estimates that this measure will cost $133 million over 2025-26 to 2029-30.
Budget 2025 proposes a one-time supplemental Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) payment of $150 for each Disability Tax Credit (DTC) certification, or re-certification, that leads to the qualification of a CDB entitlement. Beneficiaries would be retroactively eligible starting from the launch of the CDB program. The first supplemental payments are expected to the made to CDB recipients before the end of 2026-27.
PBO estimates that this measure will cost $133 million over 2025-26 to 2029-30.
- Estimates are presented on an accrual basis as would appear in the budget and public accounts.
- A positive number implies a deterioration in the budgetary balance (lower revenues or higher spending). A negative number implies an improvement in the budgetary balance (higher revenues or lower spending).
- Totals may not add due to rounding
PBO estimated the number of Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) recipients using its internal CDB model and Statistics Canada’s Social Policy Simulation Database/Model (SPSD/M).[^1] Historical numbers and growth rates of working-age DTC certificate holders, as well as statistics on DTC certificate duration and expiry, were obtained from Canada Revenue Agency’s Disability Tax Credit statistics and Information Request IR0769.
The number of CDB beneficiaries were projected using historical growth rates up to the end of 2026-27, with a cost of $150 applied to everyone for that year. Anyone eligible since the beginning of the CDB program in June 2025 are assumed to receive their first payment in 2026-27, as indicated by the budget. In subsequent years, take-up was estimated by adding the net increase in CDB beneficiaries and the expected membership loss each year.
The main sources of uncertainty relate to the data and assumptions for CDB take-up and the population of DTC certificate holders, as well as their evolution over the projection period. There is also upside cost uncertainty due to potential behavioural response. While this analysis did not incorporate a behavioural response due to the lack of data, this measure could potentially increase the number of DTC certificate applications and CDB take-up.