Expanded disability supports for student aid

Summary#

The final Regulations Amending the Canada Student Financial Assistance Regulations (SOR/2022-131) expand federal student-aid disability supports to people with a new category called a persistent or prolonged disability. The changes take effect on August 1, 2022 and let more students access disability grants, extra in-study help, and targeted repayment assistance.

What it does#

• Adds a new definition — persistent or prolonged disability — for impairments that last, or are expected to last, at least 12 months but are not expected to be lifelong.
• Updates the definitions of permanent disability and severe permanent disability to use modern language that includes intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairments and “functional limitations.”
• Lets students with a persistent or prolonged disability who are taking between 40% and 60% of a full course load choose to be treated as a full-time student (so they can keep full-time supports).
• Extends several disability-targeted benefits to people with a persistent or prolonged disability, including:
  • Canada Student Grant for Students with Disabilities
  • Canada Student Grant for Services and Equipment – Students with Disabilities
  • Repayment Assistance Plan for Borrowers with Disabilities
  • the longer lifetime cap of 520 weeks of student financial assistance for those eligible
  • eligibility for the Severe Permanent Disability Benefit remains tied to severe, lifelong disabilities
• Makes the evidence rules for the two disability-related grants more flexible. Instead of a fixed list (medical certificate, psycho-educational assessment, or proof of federal/provincial disability assistance), assessors can accept a broader range of documents to show a student has a permanent or persistent/prolonged disability.

Who's affected#

• Primarily students and borrowers with a persistent or prolonged disability. The government expects about 40,000 recipients on average per year will benefit from the expanded supports.
• Estimated impacts (from the regulatory analysis):
  • about 30,000 additional post-secondary students could become newly eligible for the disability grant each year (with roughly 22% of them using the services-and-equipment grant)
  • about 10,000 additional borrowers could become newly eligible for the Repayment Assistance Plan for Borrowers with Disabilities each year
• Student aid administrators, provinces and territories that deliver student aid, and the federal student-loan program will need to adjust policies and processes. Québec, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories use alternative arrangements and are treated separately.
• People with shorter-term or episodic conditions that last less than 12 months are not covered by the new definition; the rules say persistent or prolonged disabilities are those lasting at least 12 months.

Why it matters#

• The change broadens who can get non-repayable grants and stronger repayment help. That can make post-secondary education more affordable for many people with long-term, but not lifelong, disabilities.
• The government’s cost–benefit analysis estimates total monetized benefits of $1,058 million (present value) over ten years and costs of $822 million, yielding a net benefit of $236 million (present value) and a benefit–cost ratio of about 1.3 to 1.
• In practical terms, more students may be able to stay in or finish school, reduce how much they borrow, and get extra help repaying loans — outcomes that tend to improve future earnings and reduce unemployment risk.
• The rules also aim to reduce paperwork barriers by letting assessors accept a wider range of documentation to prove disability, which may lower time and cost burdens for some applicants.

If something in the Gazette item is unclear (for example how specific documentation will be judged in practice), the regulations say provinces, territories and federal administrators will provide implementation details and communications to students.