Heather Thompson would love to work.
The 26-year-old dreams of going back to university to study politics and environmental science, and ultimately pursue a career to “try and make things better” in society.
“I’m not the person I want to be yet and I want to be able to achieve certain goals and be a well-rounded, well-developed person. But I’m prevented from doing that because I live in legislated poverty,” they said.
Thompson is one of 600,000 working-age Canadians with disabilities that the federal government said it would help lift out of poverty with the Canada Disability Benefit, which takes effect next July. The program is meant as a top-up to existing provincial and territorial income supports.
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“We had huge expectations and we had all this hope, like finally we can escape poverty,” Thompson said.
But after last spring’s federal budget revealed that the maximum people will receive per month is $200, the hopes of people …