Yesterday the Regulations for the Registered Disability Savings Plan were published in Part 2 of the Canada Gazette (p.16-20). As expected there were not a lot of changes following the consultations held by the federal government in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The one substantial change that came out of the original draft regulations was the earnings from the Grant and Bond have been removed from the assistance holdback amount.
Originally, if people withdrew early from the plan and had received a Canada Disability Savings Grant or Bond from the government, the total amount of the Grant and Bond including earnings, would be clawed back. In the final Regulations published yesterday, this need to include earnings in the assistance holdback amount has been withdrawn. The passage below is an excerpt from the Gazette which outlines this change.
“Some representatives from financial institutions expressed concern about the administrative complexity surrounding the assistance holdback amount. The Government originally proposed that the assistance holdback amount be comprised of the CDSG, CDSB and any earnings they generate. In response to concerns
raised by financial institutions regarding the difficulty in tracking earnings generated from the CDSG and CDSB, the Government removed earnings from the assistance holdback amount. In the Regulations, the assistance holdback amount will only be comprised of the CDSG and CDSB. This change is expected to ease
the administrative burden and cost for financial institutions while being less punitive for people with severe and prolonged disabilities who hold an RDSP.”
The federal government has committed to conducting a review of the RDSP in 3 years, so this isn’t the last opportunity we will have to request amendments to the Regulations.
To access the final Regulations you can click on the following link: http://gazetteducanada.gc.ca/partII/2008/20080625/pdf/g2-14213.pdf