Bill C-211: An Act to amend the Income Tax Act and the Canada Pension Plan (deeming provision)
Repetitive paperwork blocks the essential supports from healthcare providers and blocks Canadians living with disabilities from access to the benefits they rely on.
Canadians living with disabilities go through the process of navigating complex, repetitive paperwork to access life changing benefits. This becomes a bigger challenge when applicants complete forms across different levels of government, having to prove the same disability again and again. It is an administrative barrier to people getting the support they need.
Not only is it time consuming and stressful for the person living with disabilities, but the paperwork load on healthcare workers takes away from time spent providing care. Each disability tax credit form can take up to an hour to complete, and in 2022, over 400,000 disability tax credits forms were processed, which amounts to over one million lost patient visits. These hurdles take away from essential healthcare services.
To address this, MP Johns introduced Bill C-211, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act and the Canada Pension Plan (deeming provision). This bill would streamline the process by making it so when a disability is already recognized by a province or territory, it will automatically recognized federally as well. It would reduce the paperwork burden on healthcare workers while making the process easier for people with disabilities to access the benefits they are entitled to.