Basic Income, Gender & Disability

Written by: Sally A. Kimpson

The purpose of this report is to inform current thinking about the potential of a basic income program to contribute to the full and effective participation and inclusion in society of disabled women and gender-diverse disabled people.

It is a companion report to Basic Income & The Care Economy, and is designed to contribute to LEAF’s larger Basic Income Project.

The research for this report focused on four topics:

• The substantive inequality of disabled women and gender-diverse disabled people, and how poverty contributes to that inequality in multiple domains of everyday life;
• Current disability income support programs in Canada, including particular effects in disabled women and gender-diverse disabled people’s lives;
• Basic income and its potential to reduce or eradicate the effects of poverty and the negative effects of existing income support programs; and
• A Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) program, described ideally, and comparing it with a basic income program.

It is LEAF’s position that any basic income program for disabled women and gender-diverse disabled people must:

1. Be provided to all disabled people who meet the Accessible Canada Act definition of disability;
2. Either ensure that the cost of both specific and general extraordinary disability-related supports and services are covered, or be generous enough to enable disabled people to purchase these on their own;
3. Be portable across provinces and territories; and,
4. Set allowable earnings exemptions at a generous level, with minimal clawbacks of earned income above maximum allowable earnings.

Further, neither a CDB nor a basic income should be subject to any offset or clawback of Canada Pension Plan-Disability benefits, and the Disability Tax Credit should be made fully refundable.

As between a Canada Disability Benefit or a basic income program, LEAF advocates for whichever program meets the above criteria. Without these elements in place, LEAF does not support implementation of either program.

Download the Executive Summary and Recommendations, and Full Report below. The Executive Summary and Recommendations are also available in French.