Disability News for Canada and Canadian Providences

Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits: There is no common definition of "disability" in Canada. If you qualify for disability benefits from other government programs, or private insurers, this is not a guarantee that you'll qualify for a CPP disability benefit.

Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Disability Benefits provide a monthly taxable benefit to contributors who are disabled and to their dependent children. This service is operated by Service Canada on behalf of Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC).

A CPP disability benefit is not approved on the basis of which disability or disease you have, but on how the medical condition and its treatment affect your ability to work at any job on a regular basis.

To be eligible for a CPP disability benefit, you must have made enough CPP contributions in at least four of the last six years, or you must have have made valid CPP contributions for at least 25 years, including three of the last six years, prior to becoming disabled.

Canadian Seniors

Map of Canada showing Canadian provinces.

After age 65, the CPP retirement pension amount is less than the CPP disability benefit, but you are also eligible for the Old Age Security and possibly also the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

In Canada, labor laws do not specify a retirement age for employees and in most of Canada, mandatory retirement has been abolished.

British Columbia became the latest province to enact legislation to amend its human rights code and end compulsory retirement at aged 65. As of that date, workers in B.C. are no longer forced to quit when they turn 65.

In Quebec, forcing an employee to retire because of age is considered to be discriminatory under the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

In the Canadian Providences of Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, the practice of mandatory retirement in enterprises under provincial/territorial jurisdiction is discriminatory under the human rights legislation.

Facts and Statistics

• In Canada between 2001 and 2006 the number of persons who reported having a disability increased by three-quarters of a million people (+21.2%), reaching 4.4 million in 2006. At the same time, the non-disabled population experienced lesser growth, increasing by 3.3% to reach 26.2 million people. As a result, the national disability rate increased 1.9 percentage points from its level of 12.4% in 2001 to reach 14.3% in 2006 - Canadian Disability Statistics.
• Almost 3.8 million Canadians, or 13.7 per cent of the population, identified themselves as having a disability in 2012. This was up from 12.4 per cent, or 3.6 million people, in 2001.
• The Canada Pension Plan disability benefit is a monthly payment and is available to people who contributed recently to the Canada Pension Plan while they worked, and then became unable to work at any job on a regular basis because of a disability.