Historical information about the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) and the changes to it over various budgets. This is from the 2012 Federal Budget.
I’ll stay away from the rest of the budget (I don’t want to sound too much like a whiny Civil Servant (who said, Too Late!)), but there are changes to the RDSP program which is important to me and any other parents who have disabled children and those with disabled loved ones.
From this web site, the changes are:
The budget proposes the following changes that will increase the effectiveness of RDSPs:
- Simplifying the process to open RDSPs for individuals who have reached the age of majority and lack contractual competence;
- Reducing the repayment of Canada disability savings grants and Canada disability savings bonds in certain cases;
- Introducing changes to the minimum and maximum withdrawal rules;
- Allowing a tax-free rollover of registered education savings plan investment income into an RDSP;
- Temporarily suspending the termination of an RDSP following cessation of eligibility for the disability tax credit if the beneficiary may qualify for the DTC again in the foreseeable future; and
- Reducing the burden associated with administrative requirements.
The last point is good, because as I have said, setting up an RDSP with TD/Waterhouse really was a complicated issue.
Many of these changes are designed to encourage more institutions to offer RDSPs to their customers (they are not available everywhere) and to make them swifter to implement.
The ability to transfer the proceeds of an RESP into an RDSP is a good idea. Suppose you have a child who becomes disabled or is diagnosed later in life. In that case, the ability to take the funds that you had been saving for post-secondary education into a lifetime savings program for the child just seems to make sense to me.
The temporarily suspending the termination of an RDSP is interesting as well, in case you have a disabled person whose cure” is misdiagnosed, or they were unable to get their disability “re-confirmed” in a timely fashion, there is not a sudden closure of their RDSP, again, this seems to make sense to me.
Many people still seem to be unsure about the RDSP, but if you have a disabled loved one, I strongly advise you to find out more about the program. If the government offers money to help later in life, you should try to get that money as soon as you can.
Related RDSP Pages
- The RDSP Page is the Overview of all articles I have written about the RDSP (including DTC and other areas).
- RDSP : Laying the Ground Work (first things first)
What needs to be done BEFORE you can apply for a Registered Disability Savings Plan? A major aspect of this is the Disability Tax Credit (DTC). Make sure you click on this page to get started. - RDSP : Working with The Account
Now that you have succeeded in getting your Disability Tax Credit (DTC) you need to open an RDSP account with a bank, but how is that done? It is not as easy as you might think. This page outlines many issues that have arisen for my family working with an RDSP account. - Disability Tax Credit Related Topics
Thanks to my RDSP and DTC work I then had to learn a great deal about the tax implications of having a disabled child. - Autism Specific Articles
Being the proud Father of a child on the Autism Spectrum, I also ended up writing a great deal about Autism specific things as well.
- RDSP : Laying the Ground Work (first things first)
This is the first that I’ve read about this and like you, I think the ability to change an RESP into an RDSP is a really good idea! Having just opened an RESP for my son, it gives me a bit of peace of mind to know that this is an option if something horrible were to happen.
Very true. It is rare that the government gives us a sensible decision so soon in a program.