The well-being of vulnerable people stands on two pillars: social and financial well-being. We’ve always known this at PLAN and you can get lots of information from our websites: www.plan.ca and www.planinstitute.ca.
Working around financial well-being reinforces the importance of having genuine, caring and long-lasting relationships with unpaid people (a social network). To execute a will, you need an executor. To manage a trust, you need trustees. To maintain an RDSP, you need “holders” of the plan. This is all obvious.
How will the RDSP work for isolated people who do okay surviving, or maybe live in a staffed service but who won’t be deemed to have capacity under the law to “hold” an RDSP an who don’t have someone to “hold” an RDSP for them? If no one takes responsbility to assist them, nothing drastic is likely to happen, but they may lose out on an opportunity to improve their lives.
People who have social networks that will assist them in opening a plan will receive the Canada Disability Savings Bond ($1,000 per year for up to 20 years). The importance of social networks couldn’t be clearer. Social isolation perpetuates financial poverty.