Victoria – BC’s Ombudsperson Jay Chalke released an update today on the province’s progress addressing an unfair practice that withheld federal financial support from caregivers of children with disabilities.
The issue was first highlighted in the Ombudsperson’s 2022 report, Short-Changed: Ensuring federal benefits paid to the province reach caregivers of children with disabilities. The report detailed the case of grandparents caring for their granddaughter, an Indigenous child with mental and physical disabilities, under a kinship care court order. Despite having gone through the required steps, the grandparents did not receive the monthly federal Child Disability Benefit (CDB) intended to help families caring for children with disabilities.
Instead, the family’s kinship care order meant that in accordance with federal legislation, the CDB was paid to general provincial revenues rather than to the grandparents. The Ombudsperson’s 2022 report found that the province’s failure to pass the benefit through to the grandparents was unjust and that the Ministry of Children and Family Development had known about the issue for over two years but failed to take action.
“This complaint highlighted an unfair practice that hurt many caregivers of children with disabilities,” said Jay Chalke. “The province failed to provide the benefit these caregivers rightfully deserved, enriching itself at their expense. However, I am pleased at the significant progress the province has made to correct this issue, including retroactive payments of over one million dollars to the caregivers of children with disabilities.”
The Ombudsperson made four recommendations to the province and its Ministry of Children and Family Development in the 2022 report. Today, three of those recommendations have been fully implemented, resulting in significant improvements for the caregivers and their families:
- Ongoing Payments: Kinship caregivers of children with disabilities are now receiving monthly payments from the province equivalent to the federal CDB (approximately $264 per child).
- Retroactive Payments: Over $1 million has been distributed by the province to 251 kinship caregivers of children with disabilities, covering the period retroactive to April 1, 2019.
- Support for Indigenous Agencies: The ministry is supporting Indigenous Child and Family Service Agencies in implementing the recommended payment process.
To date, the province has made no progress on the fourth recommendation: to work with the federal government to fix systemic inequities in federal legislation that denies some caregivers access to federal benefits meant to support children with disabilities. Without federal legislative change, inequities will continue. For example, some caregivers cannot claim the Disability Tax Credit on their income tax returns even when their dependants qualify, leaving families at further disadvantage, especially those on limited incomes.
“I strongly urge the province to re-commit to working with federal counterparts to ensure caregivers of children with disabilities receive the financial supports they need,” said Chalke. “The province’s failure to move this important work forward with the federal government perpetuates inequitable treatment of these children. My office will continue to monitor its progress on this remaining recommendation and will report publicly until we are satisfied that it has been successfully implemented.”
Read the 2025 update report