Photo by Dan Fleury
Editor's Note: The following is an op-ed article submitted by Francis Kozial about class discrimination in recently funded Canada Disability Benefits and how it relates to class discrimination on the ground in Kingston. states. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Kingstonians.
In the new 2024 federal budget, the Liberal government finally put numbers into the long-awaited Canada Disability Benefit (CBD). This benefit promised to lift disabled people out of poverty and was desperately needed in Kingston, as elsewhere.
Instead, the budget only adds $200 a month to those who qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. According to the federal government's own poverty line calculations, the poverty line for individuals in Canada is now about $25,000 a year, compared to the 2018 poverty line of about $18,000 a year after accounting for inflation.
Disability benefits vary from state to state, but all are well below the poverty line, and no state allows someone living entirely on disability to lift themselves out of poverty for an extra $200 a month. In Ontario, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payment is $15,700 per year ($1,308 per month), or $16,900 if you have a reason for needing a “work-related expense” bonus.
Here in Kingston, an extra $200 a month only adds up to $18,000 a year. This is his poverty line six years ago. And the poverty line is just the amount you can afford to buy food, medicine, and other necessities for good health. A good quality of life is more expensive.
But it's worse than that. As a permanent ODSP resident due to a severe disability, I am used to people treating me like they don't care if I live or die. Our support has not increased with inflation (thankfully 2023 was the only exception) and the last time a state government publicly announced an ODSP increase was seven years ago, when the outgoing Liberal Party It was when he said, “I'm going to pull up.” He increases it by 3% (1 year of inflation). Despite the fact that ODSP has been falling in real terms for decades, the idea remained so controversial that the next Conservative Party reduced the increase to half a year's worth of inflation. Even though the bar is lying on the ground, $200 a month is still amazing to us.
Except for me, and most other people in poverty, won't understand that. That's because the new disability benefits will only be paid to those who qualify for the disability tax credit. Most of us who live below the poverty line don't qualify for that tax credit. That's because tax credits are generally based on a person's ability to live alone and carry out basic lifestyle habits, not their ability to work.
I have been approved by the state and federal governments for another benefit called Severe Permanent Disability Benefits, which forgive my student loans because I am disabled and unable to pay them back. was. To do that, I had to convince the government that I couldn't work at all. I did that and I still don't qualify for the disability tax credit. I would add that tax credits have always benefited middle-class disabled caregivers more because they require taxable income, and were never really suitable. Us anyway.
People who live below the poverty line and with disabilities are living a nightmare, and everyone else has to stand up and say what's happening now with the federal budget, what's been going on for decades with the state budgets. And until they start complaining about unfairness, like what's happening with local budgets, they'll continue to live a nightmare. What our city government has or has not done regarding the treatment of the poor in our city.
I never believed I would be approved for Canadian disability benefits in the first place. Because, frankly, most people care more about kicking us out of their neighborhoods than advocating for increased social support. This is something I clearly witnessed in Kingston. Illegal discrimination by landlords against people with disabilities is rampant in Kingston, and is sometimes explicitly mentioned in housing advertisements, but the city has not taken action or attempted to raise landlord awareness. I've never seen it done. Recently, when a small home community in the city was moving into my neighborhood, someone was passing out flyers in mailboxes saying “those people” shouldn't live with us in the residential area. Ta. Classism is alive and well in Kingston, coming from all levels of government and all levels of people.
I should know better now, but I made the mistake of getting my hopes up when CDB was approved. I believed that maybe this was true. If we are here through no fault of our own, the day may really come when the government lifts us all out of poverty.
Even if the government paid me $50,000 a year, being severely disabled would be absolutely terrible for me. But now, if your disability is too severe to work, you deal with that disability, you deal with ableism, you deal with poverty due to institutionalized ableism, you deal with classism, you deal with one tragedy. I'm changing it to four. And needless to say, you'll become a social pariah that no one wants to talk to, much less in your neighborhood. After all, we are known to be lazy, crazy, stupid, dirty, irresponsible liars who cause trouble wherever we go.
The federal government has decided not to help us. In addition to the cruelty of broken promises, these events reflect an embarrassing level of ignorance on the part of those responsible about who we really are here. That is a level of ignorance that is common among ordinary people. The average middle-class person doesn't even know that most of Kingston's soup kitchen patrons use his ODSP. The first step to changing oppression is admitting that you don't understand it. You can start from there and move towards love.
In a world that cared about us, the federal government would apologize for this mistake. The state government plans to raise the ODSP to well above the current poverty line of $25,000 a year and set it to increase each year in line with inflation. Disability tax credits would be extended to all people who are unable to work or who are severely disabled. Kingston City Council will publicly apologize for attempting to evict some of the city's most vulnerable people they are sworn to serve, and everyone who supported the Bell Island Park case will be held to true accountability. , will humbly, directly and respectfully contact us. And admit that you don't know what to do now. Rather than actively making us homeless through malicious evictions and mortgage denials, Kingston's landlords don't want us to be homeless, so they're particularly concerned about ODSP and Ontario Works (OW, “welfare''). (sometimes called) people. Lend us rent the moment they hear our source of income. And as Kingstonians volunteer to help us, ask tough questions, challenge our leaders when they make mistakes, and investigate for ourselves, we remember that we are all the same. That's what he did.
Anyone who has not yet joined us will be able to join us someday, as anyone can become disabled and unable to work. Neither your educational background nor your resume will save you. Having a master's degree may make me better at strategizing and budgeting better than others, but even at my best, I was homeless in Kingston. It's not my fault. It belongs to the city, it belongs to the people, it belongs to the province and it belongs to Canada. It's heartbreaking because we're all in this together and have failed each other.
Even in this gutter with the rest of the garbage, I have a dream. I dream of a day when people are treated with respect and no one looks at us and turns away in disgust. I dream of not being afraid of homelessness or eviction. I dream of knowing what safety means. I dream of a city and a country where no citizen, for any reason, much less a disability, has to be sentenced to a life sentence to the horrible nightmare of poverty.
But even though I dream of these things, I don't spend time expecting them. Because hope is for the privileged, and hope is too vulnerable.
If you are financially privileged and make more than us in ODSP or OW, please contact your MP and MPP. Please make a complaint. Please do not leave it as is. Please support our partners at Resolve Counseling, Martha's Table, and Mission Food Bank. It's home to some weirdly radical people who seem to think we're important. Remember that we should be prioritized in anti-poverty efforts because our income is half that of a minimum wage worker and OW he is much worse than ODSP.
Poverty is inherently traumatic, and its realities are all around us every day in Kingston, as elsewhere. I hope you will fight for us before the day comes that you join us. Because from that day on no one will listen to you, even if they should. Because even though we are all important, we have always been one.
Francis Kozial is a disabled retiree and social justice activist living in Kingston.
Please share your opinion! Send a letter to the editor or an op-ed to Kingstonist Editor-in-Chief Tori Stafford. [email protected].
