"You cobble something together because a better delivery mechanism would take an awful lot more time to develop." "This is what you get when you rush policy because you have an artificial deadline," Robson said. This newbenefit is therefore meant to be an interim measure while the federal government works on a more complete dental-care plan. The dental benefit is a key element of the supply and confidence agreement struck between the Liberals and the NDP, which stipulates that the government has until the end of the year to offer dental care to children under the age of 12 with a household income under $90,000. She made the comments in June, when auditor general Karen Hogan found the government was not doing enough to make sure income-tested supports like the child benefit get to hard-to-reach populations like those living on reserves, despite spending tens of millions of dollars on outreach. "Intuitively, those are an awful lot of people who are probably financially vulnerable and less likely to have access to dental insurance," said Robson.Ĭindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, has previously spoken about how there are also many reasons Indigenous Peoples may not fill out their income tax returns, from principled stands against colonization and lack of trust in government to lower literacy stemming from poorly funded public services. Jennifer Robson, an associate professor and program director of political management at Carleton University, says about 10.5 per cent of adults with children under the age of 18 don't file a tax return, and those families tend to be below the poverty line. "It's just a lot of paperwork and time," Petit said. They will also have to provide their dentist's contact information and the approximate date of their child's appointment and keep their receipts in case they are audited. After that, families will need to attest that they do not have private dental insurance and that they have out-of-pocket dental expenses.
The Canada Revenue Agency plans to use past tax returns to determine if families meet the income criteria and confirm that they have a child under the age of 12. She said this will likely also be the case for the proposed dental benefit. The same is true for those who do not speak English or French, she said, citing the onerous and daunting administrative work as a potential factor. "Pushing out the dental benefit using the same platform is going to run into a lot of the same issues." "Low-income people, homeless people, people on social assistance - all of these groups of people have really low tax filing rates and low take-ups of benefits that are already out there like the Canada Child Benefit," said Gillian Petit, an economist and research associate at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy. That means they face barriers to accessing the Canada Child Benefit payments and could encounter similar roadblocks when it comes to getting the new dental benefit. That is run through the Canada Revenue Agency, which the experts suggest could be a problem because many low-income families are less likely to file tax returns. The federal government plans to send cheques of up to $650 to qualifying low- and medium-income households to help pay for children's dental needs through the same platform used for Canada Child Benefit payments. Taxes, fees not included for deals content.OTTAWA - Economic and public policy experts warn the proposed federal dental benefit may not reach the families most in need because the government has chosen to distribute it through the tax system. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this matter, you are welcome to contact our customer support team.Ĭanada247 is not a booking agent, and does not charge any service fees to users of our site.Ĭanada247 is not responsible for content on external web sites. The brand names, logos, images and texts are the property of these third parties and their respective owners. cannot be held responsible or liable for the accuracy, correctness, usefulness or reliability of the data. The content displayed in the Directory consists of information from third parties, among others from publicly accessible sources, or from customers, who have a presentation page in our directory. © 2022 All Rights reserved.Īt Canada 247 our purpose is to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists, restaurants, bars, hotels, local businesses.
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