Disability Advisory Committee Meeting – May 28, 2018

Readout of the May 28, 2018 meeting of the Disability Advisory Committee

On May 28, 2018, the Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) held its second meeting in Ottawa. This meeting was an opportunity for the Committee to formalize its objectives and working arrangements and confirm next steps for a successful Fall meeting.

Five Committee working groups have been formed to consult with a wide range of stakeholders in order to gather data and information to form recommendations. These recommendations will be put forward to the Minister of National Revenue and the Commissioner of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to improve services for people living with disabilities. The five DAC working groups are:

During the meeting, the working groups provided a summary of discussions held to date as well as their plans for future work.

The Committee also reviewed the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) application process, in order to identify and make recommendations on areas where the process could be improved and simplified.

Since its first meeting in January 2018, the Committee has received 47 submissions from the public and stakeholder organizations on possible administrative improvements. These submissions were reviewed and the Committee discussed how best to incorporate them in their recommendations.

Finally, the Committee received the results of the review of all DTC applications for life-sustaining therapy that had initially been denied between May and December 2017 based on the revised clarification letter. This was a high priority for the Agency, and the review is now complete.

We have reviewed 2,267 applications under life-sustaining therapy in accordance with the announcement made in December 2017. These applications had been initially denied based on the revised clarification letter between May 5, 2017, and December 8, 2017. As a result of the review, 1,326 of these were approved. 

In reinstating the pre-May 2017 clarification letter, the acceptance rate is an estimated 82 percent, which is similar to the estimated pre-May 2017 acceptance rate. The CRA has proactively contacted individuals whose eligibility has been reinstated.

The Committee will continue its efforts over the summer in preparation for the next meeting, which will be held in Fall 2018. At this meeting, the Committee will bring forward initial recommendations on areas where the CRA can improve its administration of measures for persons with disabilities.

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