Opinion: Disabled Albertans penalized for sharing expenses with working partners

When I met my husband over 20 years ago, I knew he had a disability, and I loved every part of him, even the ones that didn’t work like they should.  Gradually, over time, we learned the best way to deal with them and formed a rapport with his worker — I was confident we knew how to operate within the system.

But then the UCP overhauled disability programs in this province.

Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) and Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP) have been getting a great deal of attention recently, and rightly so. However, there is one issue, in particular, that almost nobody speaks of when it comes to AISH and ADAP, and that’s working partners.

Disabled people in this province are punished for sharing expenses. For having someone by their side to help them navigate their disability. For loving someone with gainful employment. For not wanting to spend their lives alone.

Any AISH or ADAP recipient in the province who has a live-in spouse is not always (or even usually) entitled to keep their full benefit. Under the new rules, after the $1,500 spousal-income mark each month, AISH/ADAP recipients’ benefits are reduced gradually.

How gradually? We have no idea, because the UCP has not shared that with anyone, including the disabled people on the program. They say “pennies on the dollar” are clawed back without specifying exactly how many pennies and at what rate the claw-backs occur.

Situations vary, but I can say that our household, since this change, has been missing out on nearly $200 of income every month due to this rule. That’s groceries for a couple weeks or a utility bill, just gone, with no way to make it up. For comparison, before these rules were changed, the threshold for spousal income claw-backs was around $2,700.

In addition to this, if the spouse uses employment insurance, employment disability insurance, worker’s compensation, or their own employer’s long- or short-term disability benefits, that is deducted using another mystery formula. Not only are you in a bad position with your employment, you now have significantly less income as well.

While I understand the logic behind having spousal-income exemptions, they are ludicrously low; $1,500 a month in Alberta in 2026 is a laughably low cap.  The average monthly income of a single individual (not a household) in this province is over $5,000 a month according to the cost of living index.

My husband and I can’t even make that when we combine our incomes. The absolute most we can bring in together without any claw-backs is $3,440. A recipient with a spouse is almost guaranteed to lose benefits if their partner works full-time, even at a job that pays under $20 an hour. These rules actively discourage disabled folks from having partners and discourages able-bodied people from having relationships with disabled folks.

Disabled people in Alberta are already struggling — single recipients are living below the poverty line. Inflation is high, groceries keep getting more expensive, and they often have additional expenses that are not covered by their benefits. The waiting list for affordable housing is months, or even years long.

Two of the disabled community have taken their own lives in despair at this situation, because they felt alone and unheard. They and every disabled person in this province deserves better than this. People with disabilities deserve to be loved and cherished, just like anyone else. This penalization of daring to live a “normal” existence will only drive more people to take desperate measures.

Charlie McDonald is the wife of 20 years to an AISH recipient, and has been advocating for her husband with the Alberta government since 2007.

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