People with disabilities 'further and further behind' as province claws back CPP increases, Manitoban says

A Manitoba man is calling for the end of a long-standing policy after he got an increase in his disability payments from the federal government due to the rising cost of living — only to have the provincial government reduce his benefits by the same amount.

Calvin Yarush, 57, said he was surprised when he opened a letter from the Manitoba government this week saying the increase to his Canada Pension Plan disability pension will be clawed back from the amount he gets from Manitoba's income support program for people with disabilities.

"I was extremely frustrated to see that … even though the CPP benefit had only increased by about $35, the province had the audacity to claw it back," he said. 

The former university instructor has been on disability for about a decade. He lives in a small town outside of Dauphin, in western Manitoba, which means he can't easily access resources like a food bank or Salvation Army supports.

"I struggle, like everybody who is on disability," he said. 

"They're on it [disability] because they have no choice, and seeing that clawback just means that we're being further and further behind as inflation increases."

Every January, the CPP benefit increases or decreases based on inflation. Using the consumer price index, it was determined the cost of living increased by 4.4 per cent, and benefits were raised accordingly. 

For Yarush, that meant an extra $35 each month. Being able to keep that would mean he wouldn't have to worry as much about having enough money for gas, and could give him a tiny cushion to buy much-needed clothing, he said.

However, he won't see a dime of the increase. When the province is determining assistance benefits, it factors in other income, including the CPP disability benefit.

Every increase to the federal benefit translates to a decrease from the provincial disability payments.

Under provincial legislation, a long list of income sources are exempt from the calculation, including certain federal student grants and the Canada Child Benefit.

Yarush and other disability advocates say it's time CPP cost of living increases were added to the list. 

Melissa Graham, executive director of the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities, said it's frustrating and stressful to see the clawback policy in place when people on income support are already struggling. 

"The thing that often goes unrecognized about people living on low income [is] they have to spend everything that they get," she said. "It's not like it's going to go into a savings account somewhere."

A spokesperson for the federal Employment and Social Development department said Canada Pension Plan legislation doesn't specify how the benefit should be integrated with income assistance or other provincial programs. That falls to the province.

The CPP is considered the "first payer," and clawbacks are a "long-established practice" by provincial benefit distributors, the federal spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the province said Manitoba's disability benefits are also indexed to inflation and users will see an increase in their payments in July.

About 10 per cent of those on provincial disability benefits also receive CPP benefits, said the province's spokesperson.

But Yarush says the moral thing for the NDP government to do would be to stop clawing back the CPP increase.

"If the level of inflation increases, then [income for] people living with disabilities … should increase as well.

"I think it's only fair."