BC’s Ombudsperson Jay Chalke released an update today, Jan. 23, on the province’s progress in addressing an unfair practice that withheld federal financial support from caregivers of children with disabilities.
The issue was first highlighted in the Ombudsperson’s report in 2022.
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 didn't receive the monthly federal Child Disability Benefit.
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 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.
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:
- 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.