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Child Disability Benefit: Who Qualifies Through the Disability Tax Credit and How Much It Pays

Updated

The child disability benefit is a tax-free monthly payment for families caring for a child under 18 who has a severe and prolonged impairment in physical or mental functions. It is an extra amount included in the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). For July 2026 to June 2027 it pays up to $3,480 a year ($290 a month) for each child who is eligible for the disability tax credit, less a reduction once family income passes $82,847. If you already get the CCB for that child, you don’t apply for it separately.

Searching for a “child disability tax credit”? The disability tax credit (DTC) lowers the income tax owed by a person with a disability or by a family member who supports them, and it isn’t paid out as a refund. The child disability benefit is the monthly payment a family eligible for the CCB gets once the child is approved for the DTC. It is also a different program from the Canada Disability Benefit, which is for people aged 18 to 64.

On this page: Who qualifies · Getting the DTC first · How much · Past years · Shared custody · How to get it

Who qualifies for the child disability benefit?

  • You are eligible for the Canada child benefit.
  • Your child is eligible for the disability tax credit.
  • A child is eligible for the disability tax credit when a medical practitioner certifies on Form T2201 that the child has a severe and prolonged impairment in physical or mental functions, and CRA approves the form. The form can be sent at any time during the year.
  • If you already get the CCB for a child who is eligible for the DTC, you do not apply for the child disability benefit: you get it automatically, and the first time CRA calculates the current and 2 previous benefit years itself (earlier years need a written request to your tax centre).

The CCB’s own conditions, in short: You can get the CCB if you live with a child under 18, are the person mainly responsible for the child's care and upbringing, are a resident of Canada for tax purposes, and you or your spouse or common-law partner has an accepted status in Canada (citizen, permanent resident, protected person, qualifying temporary resident or a person registered or entitled to be registered under the Indian Act). The CCB page lists who is eligible.

How does your child get approved for the disability tax credit?

A DTC application has two parts: Part A is filled out by the person with the impairment or their legal representative, and Part B by a medical practitioner who can certify the effects of the impairment. For a child under the age of adulthood in their province, the legal guardian signs the authorization in Part A. You can apply with the digital form or the paper Form T2201, and you can send it at any time of year. CRA decides based on what the practitioner writes in Part B.

Our disability tax credit page covers who meets the test, how to apply with Form T2201 and what to do if CRA says no.

If the child doesn’t need the credit to reduce their own tax, it can be transferred to a supporting family member named in Part A, and for a child under 18 at the end of the year the claim can also include a supplement for children with disabilities. It also lets the child have a registered disability savings plan (RDSP). The DTC page lists the programs an approved DTC opens.

How much is the child disability benefit?

For July 2026 to June 2027, the benefit is up to $3,480 a year ($290 a month) for each child eligible for the DTC. CRA works it out from the number of eligible children and your adjusted family net income, and recalculates it every July using the previous year’s income: payments for July 2026 to June 2027 use your 2025 tax return.

When adjusted family net income is above $82,847, the benefit is reduced:

  • with one eligible child, by 3.2% of the income above that amount
  • with two or more eligible children, by 5.7% of the income above it

With two or more children, the Income Tax Act takes that one reduction off the children’s combined amount, not off each child’s amount.

Example. A family with one child eligible for the DTC has adjusted family net income of $100,000. That is $17,153 above the threshold, so the reduction is $548.90 and the benefit is $2,931.10 for the year.

With two eligible children at the same income, the combined maximum of $6,960 is reduced by $977.72, leaving $5,982.28. At these rates the benefit reaches zero at about $191,600 of family income with one eligible child, and about $205,000 with two.

The benefit is tax-free. Our CCB calculator includes it in the estimate for your family.

Can you get the benefit for past years?

The first time you get the child disability benefit, CRA works out your payments for the current benefit year and the 2 previous ones without being asked. Each benefit year starts in July and ends the next June. Earlier years need a written request to your tax centre.

Two other things decide how far back payments can go. The child must have been eligible for the DTC in those years. The DTC page explains claiming the credit for past years, which can go back up to 10 years. And you need to have been eligible for the CCB for those years, which for a parent who wasn’t getting it means a late CCB application: The Income Tax Act expects the CCB notice within 11 months after the end of the month it covers; CRA may extend that for up to 10 years, and an application for a period that began more than 11 months ago needs supporting documents for the whole period. The application page explains applying late.

What happens with shared custody?

The Income Tax Act builds the disability amount into the CCB formula, and a shared-custody parent gets half of what that formula gives. A child who lives with you 40% to 60% of the time puts you in shared custody for the CCB: each parent then gets 50% of the amount they would get with full custody, worked out on that parent's own adjusted family net income. The CCB page explains shared custody.

How do you get it, and keep getting it?

If you already get the CCB for the child, CRA adds the child disability benefit to your CCB payment once the DTC is approved, so there is nothing else to apply for. If you don’t get the CCB yet, apply for the CCB: that application also registers your children for the related programs CRA runs. It is paid with the CCB, on the CCB payment dates.

To keep getting it, you must stay eligible for the CCB and your child must stay eligible for the DTC. You, and your spouse or common-law partner if you have one, need to file your taxes on time every year, even with no income.

The benefit is for children under 18. If a child you were getting it for dies on or after January 1, 2026, you may keep getting payments for 6 more months, or until the date the child would have turned 18.

For questions about the child disability benefit, CRA’s line is 1-800-387-1193; for the DTC, call 1-800-959-8281.

Some provinces also run their own programs for families of children with disabilities, such as Ontario’s Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities and Quebec’s Supplement for Handicapped Children. Our disability benefits guide covers the federal support for children.

For other federal payments, see Government benefits in Canada.

Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them on October 13, 2026. How we check facts.