Should Disability Benefit Payments Affect Child Care Subsidy Eligibility?
Official title: Proposed Regulatory Change to Regulation 138/15 under the Child Care and Early Years Act
Ontario wants to change how child care subsidies are calculated for families receiving the Canadian Disability Benefit. Right now, CDB payments count as income, which can reduce or eliminate a family's child care subsidy. The proposed change would exclude CDB payments from income calculations, so families keep both their disability benefit and their full child care support.
Why This Matters
If you or your partner receives the Canadian Disability Benefit and you have young kids in child care, this directly affects your wallet. Without this change, getting disability support could actually cost you child care help. Parents with disabilities shouldn't have to choose between benefits.
What Could Change
Starting January 1, 2026, service system managers would have to manually exclude CDB payments when calculating family income for child care subsidies. Families would need to provide proof of their CDB payments. The regulation change ensures disability benefits don't reduce child care support.
Key Issues
- Should CDB payments be excluded from income calculations for child care fee subsidies?
- How should families provide evidence of their CDB payments to service system managers?
How to Participate
- Review the proposed regulatory amendment on this consultation page.
- Submit your feedback by email to childcare_regulations@ontario.ca by the deadline.