One dashboard · 10 provinces · 3 territories

Poverty,
legislated.

Across Canada, governments set how little a disabled person may receive, earn and save, and the conditions under which that income can stop. The figures differ by postal code. The policy is an inadequate, conditional floor.

Current to · 12 August 2026  ·  Single adult rates unless stated  ·  Tap a jurisdiction for every rule
Flag of Canada Canada Disability Benefit
$204.20

maximum per month · July 2026–June 2027

Full amount to
$23,000

single adjusted family net income; $32,500 for a couple

Federal reduction
20%

over threshold; 10% each when both partners qualify

Work shield
$10,210

single; $14,294 combined for a couple

Canada Child Benefit
Exempt

not included in adjusted family net income for CDB

Could this include me?

Disability is not limited to a visible physical impairment.

The federal Disability Tax Credit can include severe and prolonged impairments in mental functions: including effects on attention, judgment, memory, adapting, problem-solving, perception of reality, and regulation of behaviour or emotions. Eligibility is based on functional effects in daily life, not a diagnosis by itself.

Check CDB eligibility ↗Explore the DTC ↗
Three different gates

CDB: requires an approved Disability Tax Credit, tax filing, age and residency conditions.

Provincial or territorial assistance: uses its own disability, financial and residency tests. Approval for one program does not automatically approve another.

A condition or diagnosis: may produce disabling effects, but the program asks how severe, prolonged and restrictive those effects are. Mental-health-related disability can qualify.

Choose your rule book

Thirteen flags. Thirteen floors.

Tap a flag to open that jurisdiction. Flags identify place; they do not imply government affiliation or endorsement.

Combined outcome · poverty
Provincial / territorial delivery
Federal money + legal gates
Person
The layered onion

No single system. One combined outcome.

Ottawa does not administer provincial disability assistance. That does not remove Ottawa from the architecture or make the provinces the sole authors of the floor.

Ottawa sets the federal benefit, its tax and disability gates, and the transfer framework. Provinces and territories set the larger assistance payment and most day-to-day conditions. Neither order guarantees that the combined income meets the cost of living. Each can truthfully identify what the other controls. The person must survive both.

01Federal layer: CDB amount, DTC gate, family-income test, tax treatment, Canada Social Transfer.
02Local layer: assistance rates, earnings and assets, housing and drugs, reporting, suspension and appeals.
03Missing floor: no published instrument in either layer guarantees a combined income tied to the actual cost of living.
04Accountability diffusion: responsibility is divided while the poverty outcome is cumulative.

This describes published institutional design and foreseeable effect. It does not allege a secret agreement or claim evidence of any individual official's motive.

Disability / social assistance

The federal Social Transfer supports social programs, but its statutory social-assistance condition addresses minimum residency, not benefit adequacy.

Fiscal Arrangements Act §25.1 ↗

Health

Provinces deliver insurance plans; Ottawa attaches Canada Health Act criteria to the cash transfer and can make deductions for non-compliance.

Canada Health Act framework ↗

Immigration / Québec

Québec selects many immigrants and delivers integration; Canada retains admission, status, inadmissibility, national classes and levels within the Accord.

Canada–Québec Accord ↗
Select a row to inspect administration
Jurisdiction
Disability-assistance base
Earnings rule
Liquid-asset rule
Federal benefits
Put yourself inside the comparison

Open your jurisdiction. Save the rules that can stop your income.

Check the earnings and asset rules before taking work or receiving money. Keep the reporting and appeal deadlines where you can find them. If the floor shown here is unacceptable, send this comparison to your disability organization, provincial or territorial representative, and MP. Ask for a floor tied to the actual cost of living, not another discretionary supplement.

See who sets what ↓
Reading the table

Comparable does not mean identical.

The “base” is the published maximum recurring amount for a single adult living independently, using basic-needs and shelter components where the program separates them. Actual entitlement can change with rent, household composition, community, food arrangements and special benefits. Earnings figures describe the headline exemption, not every deduction. Asset figures are liquid/non-exempt limits; a principal home, one vehicle, disability trusts and RDSPs are commonly treated separately.

This is a policy map, not an entitlement calculator or legal advice. Every row carries its own effective-date label and links to the administering government. A blank in a manual is not treated as permission.

Federal responsibility · published settings and instruments

The federal role does not disappear at the provincial boundary.

Direct federal settings

  • Canada Disability Benefit Act and Regulations: age 18–64, DTC gate, tax-filing gate, family-income test, annual indexation, reconsideration and Social Security Tribunal appeal.
  • 2026–27 maximum: $204.20/month. A $150 DTC-cost supplement begins September 2026.
  • Income Tax Act: CDB excluded from income; CCB excluded from the CDB adjusted-family-net-income calculation.

Intergovernmental instruments

  • Canada Social Transfer: block funding for social assistance and social services; the federal statutory condition is no minimum residency period for assistance.
  • Canada Health Transfer / Canada Health Act: maintains insured health-service criteria, but does not standardize provincial drug formularies or disability-assistance rates.
  • Federal–provincial/territorial engagement: Canada requested that CDB be exempt; preservation ultimately appears in each jurisdiction’s legislation, regulations, policy manual or rate design.

What the instruments do not set

No published federal instrument creates a national minimum disability-assistance cheque, earnings exemption, liquid-asset ceiling, shelter allowance, drug formulary, reporting interval or pre-suspension hearing. Those settings remain thirteen observable administrative choices.

CDB amount and calculation
CDB Act
CDB Regulations
Canada Social Transfer

Ten doors into the data

Share the finding, not just the link.

// End dashboard
Open for correction · Independent · No sponsors · No trackers · Rules linked to public materials