A/HRC/43/41/Add.2 related to employment discrimination. 18 Moreover, many persons with intellectual disabilities continue to work in sheltered workshops. While the Special Rapporteur welcomes the federal Government’s initiative to improve the recruitment, retention and promotion of persons with disabilities, similar efforts are necessary at the provincial and territorial level to increase the employment of persons with disabilities in the public and private sectors. F. Social protection 54. Persons with disabilities are at greater risk of living in or almost in poverty. The Canadian Survey on Disability 2017 revealed that adults with severe disabilities are more likely to be living below the poverty line than those without disabilities. Adults with severe disabilities living alone have the highest rate of poverty (61 per cent), followed by lone parents with disabilities (41 per cent). Lone parents with disabilities have a far higher rate of poverty (41 per cent) than lone parents without disabilities (24 per cent). Population surveys reveal that persons with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities, are significantly overrepresented among the poorest and the homeless. According to data from 2017, 1.6 million Canadians with disabilities were unable to afford required aids, devices or prescription medications due to cost. 19 55. The Canada Social Transfer is the primary source of federal funding to support provincial and territorial policies in the area of social assistance and services, early childhood development and childcare. Provinces and territories have flexibility for designing and administering programmes, which results in a diverse set of services and benefits across the country. Thus, persons with disabilities may, depending on where they live, be entitled to different supplements, such as renting allowances to pay for shelter or special needs allowances to pay for items or services not covered by other programmes such as prescription drugs, dental care and transportation. The existence of different overlapping benefits and programmes makes it difficult to navigate the system. 56. Access to some of the benefits is difficult due to strict eligibility criteria. Everyone who applies for income assistance has to undergo an assessment that includes an evaluation of their assets and hardship situation, a medical evaluation, an employment assessment (ability to do paid work) and an assessment of needs for support services. Although the assessment criteria and the amount received by persons with disabilities may differ in each jurisdiction, the income support payments in all provinces and territories remain below the poverty line in Canada. 57. The Canada Pension Plan and the Quebec Pension Plan provide disability benefits to persons who have made enough contributions to the Canada Pension Plan and who cannot resume their employment on a regular basis. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to make financial savings under the Disability Savings Program, to which the federal Government provides grants of up to three times the private contributions made. Targeted tax measures like the Disability Tax Credit are also available, but the application and review process is costly and complicated. Many persons with disabilities receive little or no benefit from the credit itself because their taxable income is too low. 58. The first poverty reduction strategy of Canada, “Opportunity for all”, launched in August 2018, could have been an opportunity to address the link between disability and poverty. The strategy sets an official poverty line for Canada, as well as concrete targets for halving the poverty rate by 2030. However, the Market Basket Measure, which is used to calculate the official poverty line, does not consider the extra cost of living with a disability. The Government should consider improving the way in which poverty is measured and track the extent to which poverty eradication efforts benefit persons with disabilities. 18 19 Ibid., p. 19. See www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/89-654-X2018002. 11