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RDSP Grant and Bond: How the CDSG and CDSB Work

What the government adds to a registered disability savings plan, who gets the bond without paying in a cent, and what an early withdrawal costs.

By Nate Sorensen Reviewed for accuracyUpdated Oct 202612 min read
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You've been approved for the disability tax credit, and someone has mentioned a savings plan the government pays into. It's real money. If you put $1,500 into a registered disability savings plan, or RDSP, in a year, and your family income is $117,045 or less, the government adds $3,500 on top. If your family income is $38,237 or less, it adds another $1,000 a year whether you contribute anything or not. Both stop on December 31 of the year you turn 49.

Key takeaways

  • If your family income is $117,045 or less and you put in $1,500 over a year, you get $3,500 back. Your first $500 is the part that's matched three to one.
  • The bond is separate, and you don't have to put anything in to get it. At $38,237 or less of family income, $1,000 a year lands in your plan even if you never contribute a cent.
  • Both payments stop once you reach 49, so every year between now and then is one you can still be paid for.
  • If you were approved for the credit in past years, that money hasn't gone anywhere. You can reach back ten years, and collect up to $10,500 of grant in a single year.

How much does the government actually put in?

Two separate payments, and they don't behave anything like each other. The Canada Disability Savings Grant, or CDSG, matches money you put in, so you only see it if you contribute. The Canada Disability Savings Bond, or CDSB, is for people on a low or modest income, and it reaches you whether you contribute or not.1

The grant arrives in two bands, and the first is worth three times the second. Your first $500 in a year is matched $3 for every $1, so your $500 becomes $2,000 in your account. Your next $1,000 is matched $2 for every $1. If you put in $1,500 altogether, you've collected the full $3,500 for the year. Anything you add above that doesn't earn you a cent, and over a lifetime the grant stops at $70,000.1

What $1,500 buys you in a year
A $1,500 contribution against the $3,500 the government addsTwo stacked columns drawn to the same dollar scale. The left column is what you put in: a first five hundred dollars and a next one thousand dollars, fifteen hundred in total. The right column is what the government adds: fifteen hundred dollars for that first five hundred, matched three to one, and two thousand dollars for the next one thousand, matched two to one. The right column is more than twice the height of the left one, and the total added is three thousand five hundred dollars.What you put inWhat the government adds$2,000$2 for every $1$1,500$3 for every $1your next $1,000your first $500$1,500 in$3,500 back
Your first $500 is matched three to one, your next $1,000 two to one. A contribution above $1,500 is matched at $0, so the ladder stops there. Applies when your family income is $117,045 or less in 2026.
Source Employment and Social Development Canada, How much you could get in grants and bonds.

The bond runs on its own track. When your family income is $38,237 or less, you get the whole $1,000 for the year. Between $38,237 and $58,523 you get a share of it, and your share shrinks as your income climbs. Once you're at $58,523, you get no bond at all. Over a lifetime the bond stops at $20,000.1

What if you can't find $1,500 a year?

Most people opening one of these plans aren't sitting on $1,500 of spare money, and the plan is built so the money you put in first is worth the most. Your first $500 is where three quarters of the year's value sits. About $42 a month gets you there, and it brings in $1,500 from the government.

If even that's a number from another household, you can still get the bond. It doesn't need a contribution from you at all. If your income is under the threshold and you've applied for it, it lands.

You don't have to spread it evenly either. A single $500 deposit in December does exactly what $42 a month does, so a tax refund or a birthday cheque can finish the job in one go.

Whose income decides the amount?

The thresholds don't change from person to person, but the income they test changes as you get older.

Until the December you turn 18, your grant and bond are worked out on your parents' or guardians' combined income. From the year you turn 19, they're worked out on your own income, plus your spouse's if you have one.1 If you're a young adult who isn't earning much, that switch usually works in your favour. You stop being counted inside a household that was over the threshold, and your match can jump from $1 for $1 to $3 for $1.

One more wrinkle. The income they use isn't this year's. It's what you reported on the return you filed two years ago, so your 2026 grant and bond run off your 2024 return.1

Where your family income puts you in 2026
Grant and bond amounts across family income in 2026Two horizontal tracks against a family income scale running from zero to one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The bond track pays the full one thousand dollars a year up to thirty-eight thousand two hundred and thirty-seven dollars, pays a shrinking share between there and fifty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty-three dollars, and pays nothing above that. The grant track matches three dollars for your first five hundred and two dollars for the next one thousand, up to three thousand five hundred a year, while your family income is one hundred and seventeen thousand and forty-five dollars or less. Above that it matches one dollar for one dollar, up to one thousand a year.Bond, with nothing paid in by you$1,000 a yearless each yearnothingGrant, on what you put in$3 for your first $500, then $2 for the next $1,000up to $3,500 a year$1 for $1max $1,000$38,237$58,523$117,045$0Your family income, from the tax return you filed two years ago
These thresholds are adjusted each year, so they move slightly every January. The income tested is the one from the tax return you filed two years earlier.
Source Employment and Social Development Canada, How much you could get in grants and bonds, 2026 figures.

The years before you opened the plan still count

If you were approved for the disability tax credit in earlier years but had no plan open, or had one and couldn't afford to put anything in, your grant and bond didn't disappear. You can reach back ten years and collect them.1

Your bond comes back to you on its own. You contribute nothing to trigger it. When you open your plan and apply, up to $1,000 for each eligible past year is deposited automatically, to a maximum of $11,000 in one go.1

The grant works differently. You have to buy it back with contributions, and each $500 you put in is matched at the rate you qualified for in the oldest unclaimed year first. You can't collect more than $10,500 of grant in a single year, so you'll be a few years catching up on a long stretch.1

Here's the same thing in round numbers. Say you were approved for the credit in 2019, your family income has sat near $30,000 the whole time, and you open your plan in 2026. That puts you in the $3 for $1 band for every one of those years. Your bond arrives by itself, $1,000 for each of 2019 through 2026, so $8,000 lands with nothing asked of you. Then you contribute $3,500 over the year, and because each $500 of it is matched three to one against one of those older years, you collect $10,500 of grant, which is the most anyone can be paid in a single year. If you do something similar next year, you keep working forward through the years you missed. These are illustrative figures on the real 2026 rates. They aren't a quote for your own plan.

The ten-year window keeps moving, so a year you never claimed can fall off the back of it before your contributions reach it. If you were approved for a full ten years before you opened your plan, and you're paying in small amounts, you may not be able to collect the grant for every one of those years.1

Once carry-forward is in the mix, the arithmetic isn't the kind you want to do in your head. Run your own numbers against your own income and your own contribution.

Age, province, and a tax return you have to file

Four things move what actually lands in your plan.

Your age is the deadline. Your grant and bond are paid up to December 31 of the year you turn 49, and after that you won't see either again.1 You can still open a plan and pay into it until December 31 of the year you turn 59, and your growth is still sheltered from tax, but you get no match.34 If you're in your forties and eligible, you've only got the years before 49 to collect any grant at all.

Your tax return has to be filed. From the year you turn 17 you need a return in every year, and at least the last two on file before your amounts can be worked out.1 A missing return doesn't shrink your grant, it stops it. That's the most common reason a plan sits there collecting nothing, and it doesn't cost a thing to fix.

Your province decides what a withdrawal does to your benefits. Opening a plan and paying into one won't touch your federal or provincial income support anywhere in Canada. Taking money out can, if you're in Quebec, New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island.2 People in those three provinces generally check with their provincial office before they withdraw anything.

Other people can pay in, and they can't take it back. Anyone can contribute with the plan holder's written permission, so a grandparent or a family friend can top it up, inside the same $200,000 you have over a lifetime.4 What goes in isn't refundable to whoever put it there, and every payment out of the plan goes to you.4

The honest limit here is that your own number turns on income years you may not have to hand, and no one outside your file can work it out for you. There's one document that can. If you have a plan, a Statement of Entitlement reaches you in the mail every February, right up to the year you turn 49. It names the grant you can get that year, what you'd have to pay in to collect it, and every carry-forward year still sitting open behind you.1

What it costs to take the money out early

The plan is built to be left alone, and the rule that enforces it is expensive. If you've had grant or bond paid in within the last ten years, taking money out costs you. Every $1 you withdraw sends $3 of that grant and bond back to the government. The repayment stops at whatever you were paid over those ten years.2

What a withdrawal costs while the ten-year clock is running
Three dollars of grant and bond repaid for every dollar withdrawnTwo horizontal bars. The upper bar shows one dollar withdrawn. The lower bar is three times as long and shows three dollars of grant and bond going back to the government. The rule applies to grant and bond paid into the plan within the previous ten years; anything paid in longer ago than that can be withdrawn without repayment.You take out$1Goes backto the government$3This applies to grant and bond paid in over the last ten years.Anything paid in longer ago than that comes out with no repayment.
The repayment stops at the total grant and bond paid into your plan over the previous ten years, so it cannot exceed what the government put in.
Source Employment and Social Development Canada, Withdraw money from your plan.

Three things stop the repayment applying. Once you've turned 60, nothing paid into the plan has to go back. The same holds once your last grant or bond payment is more than ten years behind you. And if you have a life expectancy of five years or less, you can take out up to $10,000 a year, once you've given medical evidence to your financial institution.2

Regular payments have to start by December 31 of the year you turn 60 in any case, and they carry on at least once a year until the money runs out. When they reach you, you get your own contributions back untaxed. The grant, the bond and everything the plan earned get taxed in the year they reach you.23

What the first year usually looks like

Most people on a low income start with the bond and nothing else, because $1,000 a year arrives without a contribution and there's no version of that worth turning down. Where there's $500 to spare, a lot of people stop right there for a while. The $3 for $1 band is the richest money in the account, and the next band pays a third as much on each dollar. And someone approved years ago who is only opening a plan now will usually put in more than $1,500 in the early years, because catching up on an old year is worth far more than adding to this one.

Which of those you're in has very little to do with willpower. It's your income from two years ago, how many approved years are sitting behind you, and how far you are from 49.

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Common questions

Do I need the disability tax credit before I can open an RDSP?

Yes. You'll need approval for the disability tax credit, a social insurance number, residency in Canada when the plan is opened, and you've got to be under 60. A plan can be opened for you right up to the December you turn 59.

Will an RDSP affect my provincial disability payments?

Opening one and paying into one won't affect your federal or provincial benefits anywhere in Canada. Taking money out of one can affect them in Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and people there usually check with their provincial office before they withdraw.

Can my parents or grandparents put money into my plan?

Anyone can, so long as your plan holder's said yes in writing. It counts toward the same $200,000 lifetime limit, they can't get it back later, and any payment out of the plan goes to you.

Is there a limit on how much I can put in each year?

There's no annual limit, just $200,000 over your lifetime. Only your first $1,500 in a year attracts a matching grant, though, and you're still free to take the rest back out. While grant or bond has been paid in over the last ten years, every $1 you withdraw sends $3 of it back.

Can I have more than one RDSP?

No, you're only allowed one at a time. It can have more than one holder, though, and you're free to move it from one financial institution to another.

Further reading

Sources

  1. Employment and Social Development CanadaHow much you could get in grants and bonds. The 2026 income thresholds, the $3 and $2 matching bands, the annual and lifetime maximums for both the grant and the bond, whose income is tested, the ten-year carry-forward and its $10,500 and $11,000 limits, the application requirement, and the Statement of Entitlement. Accessed 2026-09-03.
  2. Employment and Social Development CanadaWithdraw money from your plan. The ten-year repayment rule and the $3 for $1 amount, the exceptions at 60 and for a shortened life expectancy, the $10,000 annual limit, when regular payments must begin, what is taxable, and the three provinces where a withdrawal affects benefits. Accessed 2026-09-03.
  3. Canada Revenue AgencyRegistered disability savings plan rules. Contributions permitted until the end of the year the beneficiary turns 59, and which parts of a payment are included in income. Accessed 2026-09-03.
  4. Canada Revenue AgencyRegistered disability savings plan: eligibility and contributions. Who can be a beneficiary, the $200,000 lifetime contribution limit, the one-plan rule, who may contribute, and that contributions are not refundable to the contributor. Accessed 2026-09-03.

Educational, not financial advice. Figures verified against primary sources on the date shown.

None of this starts until the credit comes through: the disability tax credit and Form T2201 covers who qualifies and how your application moves. For a story about money the government owed someone who had never heard of it, "The Help She Didn't Know to Ask About" follows Joanne and the guaranteed income supplement. There's more on where money like this can go in the investing hub.

Related guide

The Disability Tax Credit and Form T2201 in Canada