By the Living Unlimited Team
Applying for a disability benefit is its own job. The form has a medical section somebody else has to complete, a tax section that reaches back years, and a set of rules about which program gates which other program. People miss out on money they qualify for because the paperwork defeats them, not because they are ineligible.
Colorado has just built a permanent, funded body whose job is to pay organizations to sit down with people and do that paperwork with them. It is worth reading, and then it is worth knowing that the same help already exists in Canada, is free, and is listed on a government page most people have never seen.
What Colorado passed
House Bill 26-1382, Support of Coloradans with Disabilities, was signed by Governor Jared Polis on 2 June 2026 and appears in the session laws as chapter 301 with an effective date of 2 June 2026. It creates the Colorado Disability Funding Authority, described in the enacted summary as “a newly created special purpose authority.”
The authority’s core duty is written into the act. It “is required to invite nonprofit entities, independent living centers, county departments of human services, county departments of social services, and other state and county agencies to submit proposals for programs to aid individuals with disabilities in accessing disability benefits.” Beginning on 1 July 2027, it “is required to award a contract or grant to one or more of the entities that submitted program proposals.”
Where adequate funding allows, it may also fund pilots of new ideas intended to improve quality of life or independence, and run education programs about reserved accessible parking.
Two features are unusual. The first is who governs it. The board has 13 members appointed by the governor, and the act requires that the majority be “individuals with disabilities, individuals with immediate family members with disabilities, or individuals who are caregivers to a family member with a disability.” The governor must also ensure the board holds experience in business, in running non-profits, in disability advocacy, in medicine and in law, with the medical and legal members required to have experience working with people with disabilities.
The second is where the money comes from. Beginning 1 October 2026, the $25 annual fee for licence plates in a retired style is replaced by a one-time and annual fee of $2.50 credited to the state’s disability support fund and a one-time and annual donation of $22.50 remitted to the authority. Revenue from the sale of unique vehicle registration numbers goes to the same fund. The state treasurer was to issue a warrant of $523,343 from the fund to the authority by 1 October 2026.
One part of the same act runs the other way, and it belongs beside the new money rather than after it. On 30 June 2026 the state treasurer was required to transfer $21 million out of the disability support fund to the state’s general fund. For the 2026-27 fiscal year the act also appropriates $1 million from the fund to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for vocational rehabilitation and independent living services, and $27,000 to the Department of Revenue for motor vehicle system maintenance, and it decreases by $100,000 an appropriation from a separate disabled parking education and enforcement fund. The fund is therefore both the authority’s new revenue stream and, in this first year, a source the state drew down for other purposes. We note it because a reader deciding what to make of the design should see both sides of the ledger.
The existing Colorado Disability Funding Committee is repealed on 1 July 2027, the same day the authority’s grant duty begins. The authority must file a financial and performance report with the joint budget committee by 1 December 2027 and every 1 December after that, and the state auditor may be required to audit it.
That is the whole design: a dedicated body, dedicated revenue, a board of people who have used the system, and a reporting line.
The part Canadians should know
The obvious next question is whether anything here does that job. It does, and this is the correction worth making loudly, because we have seen the opposite assumed.
Employment and Social Development Canada runs a Disability Benefit Navigation program. In the department’s own words, it “funds not-for-profit community-based organizations to help address long-standing barriers related to awareness and take-up of benefits for persons with disabilities, including the Disability Tax Credit, the Canada Disability Benefit, and other provincial and territorial disability benefits.”
What those organizations provide is not a pamphlet. The department describes it as “accessible, individualized disability benefits navigation support on a one-to-one basis.” The department publishes the list of funded organizations, with contact details, sorted by province and territory.
Eight are listed as national, and the department says you may contact a national organization from any province or territory. One of the eight is narrower than that in practice: Independent Living Nova Scotia is listed with Atlantic Canada as its region and appears in the by-region lists only for the Atlantic provinces.
- Canadian Association of the Deaf, 1-613-518-2944
- Disability Alliance British Columbia and Disability Alliance Canada, which also runs a guide site called My DTC Guide
- Independent Living Nova Scotia, 1-800-725-6585, serving Atlantic Canada
- Inclusion Canada, 1-855-661-9611, under the name Barrier-Free Benefits
- Indigenous Disability Canada and the British Columbia Aboriginal Networks on Disability Society, 1-613-899-6893 for the national coordinator
- Mood Disorders Society of Canada, 1-888-975-9990, under the name Pathway to Benefits
- Plan Institute, 1-844-311-7526, which runs a disability planning helpline
- Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada, 1-844-887-8572, under the name the GAIN Program
Six more are listed by region: Voice of Albertans with Disabilities in Alberta, Audition Quebec in Quebec, ResourceAbilities in Prince Edward Island, the NWT Disabilities Council in the Northwest Territories, the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society for Nunavut and the North, and Finautonome, whose listed region is Quebec and francophones nationally.
That last one matters outside Quebec. If you are francophone and living anywhere in the country, Finautonome is on the page for you, at 1-833-866-7334, and it is easy to miss because it sits under the Quebec heading.
One pattern in the list is worth naming plainly rather than reading anything into. Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have no provincially based organization on the page. Residents there are directed to the national organizations, which the department says may be contacted from any province or territory.
The department’s page was last updated on 17 December 2025 and says the links will be updated periodically, so check it rather than this article for the current roster.
Update, 12 September 2026: a new funding round, and why the list may change
Employment and Social Development Canada opened a new call for proposals under the Disability Benefits Navigation program. It was for not-for-profit organizations seeking funding to deliver navigation services, and it closed on 8 October 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
That deadline is not yours. If you are looking for help with a benefits application, there is nothing to submit and no date to meet. You can contact any organization on the current list today.
The round does affect who you will be able to reach later. The organizations listed now were funded through the program’s first call for proposals in 2024, which provided funding over two years. The department states that funding under that call does not guarantee future funding. Once new agreements are signed, some organizations on today’s list may not appear on the next one, and others may be added. We checked the department’s list again on 12 September 2026 and it still names the same 14 organizations, with the page last updated on 17 December 2025. Check the department’s page, not this article, before you get in touch.
Why free help matters more than it sounds
Because paid help is legal, and the cap on what it can charge is not currently in force.
Under the Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Act, regulations set a maximum fee a promoter may charge for making a disability tax credit request: $100 for a request for a determination of eligibility, and $100 per taxation year for a request relating to the deduction, or to any other deduction or tax overpayment that depends on it.
It is worth being precise about what that caps, because it is easy to read it as a $100 ceiling on the whole job. It is not. The regulation says that where more than one of those per-year requests is made for the same claimant in the same taxation year, the total for that year must not exceed $100. The eligibility fee sits outside that total, and the per-year cap is charged per year. Since a reassessment request can reach back nine years, a promoter working a full claim could lawfully bill several times $100 under this regulation, not one.
Those regulations came into force on 15 November 2021. They are not operating. The Canada Revenue Agency’s own page carries the notice at the top: “Due to a court injunction, the Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Regulations are suspended until further notice.” The agency’s explanation adds that the Act and the Regulations “came into force on November 15, 2021, but they have been suspended from operation pending the outcome of a litigation.”
We take no position on that litigation and it would not be appropriate to. The practical point is only this: a cap exists on paper, it is suspended, and a free alternative is funded and listed.
The agency also names its own routes. It runs a telephone service for complex disability tax credit questions at 1-800-959-8281, and says assistance is available through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program and its outreach initiatives.
One cost is not covered by any of this. The medical practitioner who completes Part B of the form is not a promoter under the Act, and the agency states that their fees “are set by provincial regulations and medical associations.” That charge is separate, and worth asking about before the appointment.
Two things worth knowing about the form itself
The agency sets out the disability tax credit request as four steps: the claimant or an authorized representative completes Part A of Form T2201, the medical practitioner completes Part B, the completed form goes to the agency, and then a tax return or reassessment request is filed for the current year and for up to nine previous years.
That nine year reach is the part people miss. It is why the help is worth having and why the paid market exists at all.
The other thing to know is that the credit gates a benefit. The Canada Disability Benefit provides direct financial support to people with disabilities between 18 and 64. Its own government page states that if you qualify, payments begin the month after your application is received and approved, and that back payments may run up to 24 months from when the application is received, but never for months of eligibility before June 2025.
There is now a payment for the cost of getting the credit itself
This is new, it is easy to miss, and it is the one part of this article that puts money back in a reader’s hand rather than telling them where to find help.
Since 17 September 2026, the Canada Disability Benefit has carried a supplemental amount whose stated purpose is to help offset the cost of obtaining the Disability Tax Credit. The government’s own page sets out the terms plainly. The amount is fixed at $150 and arrives as a lump sum. You may be eligible for it for each approved Disability Tax Credit certificate that qualifies you for a monthly Canada Disability Benefit payment. People who received a Canada Disability Benefit payment before September 2026 remain eligible even if they are not receiving payments now, including anyone who got only the one-time payment in July 2025. The page also states that supplemental payments are not payable for individuals who died before September 2026.
The detail that matters most: you do not need to apply for it. If you are already in the system, there is no form for this one.
What to do with this
If you have been putting off a disability tax credit application, or you were quoted a fee to do it, start with the free navigation list. It is a government page, the organizations on it are funded to do this work, and the service is one to one.
If someone has offered to do it for a share of your refund, that is legal at present and the cap that would limit it is suspended. Knowing that before you sign is the whole point of this article.
And if you already receive the Canada Disability Benefit, or received a payment under it before September 2026, check the amounts page for the supplemental payment. It is $150, it is meant to cover the cost of getting the credit in the first place, and it needs no application.
Sources
- Colorado General Assembly, HB26-1382 Support of Coloradans with Disabilities, bill summary as enacted, bill history and session laws record.
- Canada Disability Benefit, main program page, Government of Canada.
- Employment and Social Development Canada, “How much you could receive”, Canada Disability Benefit, updated 19 August 2026, for the supplemental payment terms.
- Employment and Social Development Canada, “Organizations providing disability benefits navigation services”, updated 17 December 2025.
- Employment and Social Development Canada, “Disability Benefits Navigation Program: Who can apply”, updated 19 August 2026, for the 2026 call for proposals deadline.
- Employment and Social Development Canada, “Minister Hajdu invites organizations to apply for funding to help persons with disabilities access benefits”, news release, 19 August 2026.
- Canada Revenue Agency, “Questions and answers to the proposed Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Regulations”.
- Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Regulations, SOR/2021-55, section 1.
- Government of Canada, Canada Disability Benefit.
Information, not advice. Benefit rules change. Confirm your own eligibility with the program that administers your benefits.
