All nursing designations must be recognized as health professionals qualified to sign off on the federal Disability Tax Credit
Applying for disability supports in Canada often feels like running a bureaucratic marathon. For people already struggling with serious health conditions, the process of proving their disability to qualify for the federal Disability Tax Credit can be exhausting and demoralizing. The forms are long, the requirements rigid, and the rules outdated.
Currently, only physicians and nurse practitioners are authorized to certify the full Disability Tax Credit (DTC) application, not recognizing that care for those with disabilities often happens in team-based models with much of the groundwork done by nurses—registered nurses (RNs), registered psychiatric nurses (RPNs), licensed and registered practical nurses (LPNs and RPNs)— and allied health professions, such as social workers and occupational therapists.
This is not just a paperwork issue. It is a matter of access, equity, and dignity for those with disabilities. And it’s about making our health system more efficient for everyone.
Physicians and nurses both describe the administrative burden of the DTC process as overwhelming. Every form takes time away from patients in already overstretched clinics and hospitals. Yet RNs, RPNs, and LPNs who often gather patient histories—assessing and documenting functional limitations, and supporting patients through the system—rarely get recognition for their expertise.
Physicians and nurse practitioners must provide the final signature on the DTC form, even when they may have less ongoing contact with the patient than their other nursing and allied health professional colleagues.
In the 2024 budget, the federal government earmarked $285-million to compensate physicians for completing DTC forms. On paper, this looks like an effort to address the bureaucratic burden. But in practice, it raises more questions than it answers. Who exactly will be eligible for compensation? How will the money flow? Will nurses and allied health professionals be included?
Ottawa has an opportunity to modernize how we assess disability and relieve the health-care system of wasted time and additional costs.
The national voice for half a million nurses in Canada, the Canadian Nurses Association, recommends the federal government allow all nursing designations— not just nurse practitioners—to complete and certify the DTC form. This makes sense.
Nurses work in team-based models of care informing diagnostic formulation and treatment plans, and supporting patients with their care goals. All categories of nurses are well-positioned to do outreach and educate patients about the DTC, conduct standardized assessments, and support a more streamlined process—significantly increasing uptake and ensuring more eligible individuals receive support.
This recommendation aligns with the federal government’s own Disability Advisory Committee report to simplify the DTC application process and broaden the range of health professions completing and certifying the form.
Recognizing the expertise of nurses and allied health professions would not only ease pressure on physicians and nurse practitioners, but also speed up access for people with disabilities.
Of course, compensation should follow the work: if nurses and allied health professionals are contributing to these assessments, they should be compensated fairly.
There are also smarter ways to cut red tape entirely. Automatic enrolment for people who already qualify for provincial disability benefits would spare applicants time, money, and stress, while also reducing additional costs to the health-care system.
The DTC application process matters especially now because the Canada Disability Benefit—a new federal income supplement for persons with disabilities— has begun its rollout.
Access to the new benefit is linked to the DTC. That means the flaws in the DTC process—the paperwork bottlenecks, the exclusion of nurses, the lack of automatic enrolment—risk carrying over into this historic new benefit, leaving people behind.
For people with disabilities living in poverty, delays can mean the difference between paying rent and facing eviction, between putting food on the table and going hungry. Administrative hurdles are not just inconveniences; they are barriers to survival.
The federal government should act on three fronts: expand authority to certify the DTC beyond physicians and nurse practitioners to include all nursing designations and certain allied health professions; implement automatic enrolment for people already receiving provincial disability benefits; and ensure fair compensation for all professionals who contribute to the completion and certification process, not just physicians.
These are not radical demands. They are pragmatic and cost-effective solutions that would benefit both health professionals and the people they serve.
As Canada takes historic steps to reduce disability poverty through the new benefit, we cannot allow outdated systems to stand in the way.
Rabia Khedr is the national director of Disability Without Poverty.
Gurjit Kaur Toor, RN, MPH, is the director of research and policy at the Canadian Nurses Association.