Most Ontario Accident Benefits Are Now Optional. Here Is What That Means If You Get Hurt.

On July 1, 2026, the biggest change to Ontario auto insurance in more than a decade took effect. Ontario Regulation 383/24 amended the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule, and most of the benefits that used to come standard in every Ontario auto policy are now optional coverage you have to choose and pay for.

The government describes this as consumer choice. That is one way to look at it. The other way is that a lot of people are going to find out what they did not buy at the worst possible moment.

Here is what actually changed.

What is still mandatory

Three benefits remain in every Ontario auto policy, and the limits have not moved:

• Medical benefits
• Rehabilitation benefits
• Attendant care benefits

The standard limits are still $3,500 if your injuries fall under the Minor Injury Guideline, $65,000 combined for non-catastrophic injuries, and $1,000,000 for catastrophic impairments. Higher limits have always been available as optional coverage and still are. The costs of certain insurer examinations and disability certificates also remain covered as part of the standard package.

If you are injured in a collision in Ontario, you still have access to treatment funding. That part of the safety net is intact.

What became optional

Two things happened here, and it is worth keeping them apart.

Benefits that were automatic and are not anymore

Every insured person had this coverage. As of July 1, 2026, it only applies if it was purchased.

Income replacement. Your benefit is still calculated the same way: 70 per cent of your gross income, up to a weekly ceiling. What changed is the ceiling. It used to be $400 per week for everyone. Now the regulation names no dollar figure at all. The ceiling is whatever amount was fixed by the optional benefit you bought.

Non-earner benefits. Previously $185 per week for people who were not working at the time of the accident, including students and recent graduates, where the injury caused a complete inability to carry on a normal life. That threshold still applies. What changed is that the benefit is now optional, at whatever amount was purchased.

Death and funeral benefits. Previously $25,000 to a surviving spouse, $10,000 to each dependant, and up to $6,000 toward funeral expenses. All of it is now optional, at amounts set by the coverage purchased.

Lost educational expenses. Previously up to $15,000 for tuition and related costs a student could not recover after an accident. Now optional.

Visitor expenses. Previously covered reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by family visiting an injured person during treatment and recovery. Now capped at the purchased amount.

Damage to clothing, glasses, hearing aids and similar items. Previously reasonable expenses. Now capped at the purchased amount.

Benefits that were never automatic for most people

These two were part of the standard policy only where the injured person suffered a catastrophic impairment. If your injury was not catastrophic, you could only get them by buying the optional versions that existed under the old section 28. Those optional versions have now been revoked and folded into the main sections.

Caregiver benefits. Previously $250 per week for the first person in your care and $50 per week for each additional person. Section 13 now reads "an impairment" instead of "a catastrophic impairment," matching the scope the old optional version already had. The trade is the same as everywhere else: eligibility beyond catastrophic cases exists only for people who bought the coverage, and only up to the amount they bought.

Housekeeping and home maintenance. Previously $100 per week, and part of the standard package in catastrophic cases only. Section 23 now reads "an impairment" as well, on the same terms. There is also a new hard stop written into the section itself. Where the impairment is not catastrophic, expenses incurred more than 104 weeks after the onset of disability are not payable.

Notice the pattern. In almost every case the regulation stopped naming a dollar figure and replaced it with the phrase "the amount fixed by the optional benefit." There is no statutory floor anymore. Two people can both tell you they have income replacement coverage and have completely different numbers behind that sentence.

Coverage that was already optional before July 1, including increased medical and rehabilitation limits, dependant care, and indexation, remains optional. Some of those dollar figures moved out of the regulation as well.

The restriction that catches people

This is the part that matters most, and it is the part almost no one is discussing.

Meet Sam. Sam is 29, rents an apartment alone, cycles to work, and has never held a driver's licence. No car, no auto policy, and no one in his life whose policy could reach him.

If a car had run a red light and hit Sam in a crosswalk on June 30, 2026, he could have claimed the full standard benefits package through the driver's insurer: income replacement up to $400 per week while he recovered, and everything else that came standard.

If the same collision happens once the new rules apply to that driver's policy, Sam still gets medical, rehabilitation and attendant care benefits. Those are mandatory and still reach him, at the standard limits. But income replacement is now an optional benefit. And optional benefits do not reach Sam, no matter how much coverage the driver who hit him purchased. If Sam cannot work for a year, the auto insurance system pays him nothing to live on.

Here is why. Optional benefits in Ontario have never been available to everyone. Section 28(2) of the Schedule has said since 2010 that optional benefits apply only to four groups:

1. The named insured, the person whose name the policy is in
2. The spouse of the named insured
3. The dependants of the named insured and of the named insured's spouse
4. Anyone specifically listed on the policy as a driver of the insured vehicle

That limit is not new. What changed on July 1 is which benefits sit in the optional bucket. The reform moved income replacement, non-earner, caregiver, death, funeral, education, visitor and housekeeping benefits, along with coverage for damaged personal items, into that bucket, and they carried the restriction with them.

For readers who want the mechanics: the Schedule covers people through two main branches. The first is the named insured, listed drivers, the spouse and the dependants. The second covers any person involved in an accident in Ontario involving the insured vehicle. That second branch is the reason a pedestrian struck by a stranger's car can claim benefits at all. The optional benefits reach the first branch only.

Think about who that leaves out. Not people without cars. People without access to anyone's auto policy. If you are a named insured, a spouse, a dependant, or a listed driver on any policy in your household, you claim through that policy and keep whatever optional benefits it carries, whether or not you own a vehicle. Under the priority rules in section 268 of the Insurance Act, that is the policy you go to first.

The gap opens for people like Sam. A cyclist who lives alone and does not drive. A pedestrian in a household with no vehicle. A passenger who is not listed on the host policy and is nobody's dependant.

For most people reading this, the fix is simple and worth doing today: make sure everyone in your household is connected to a policy in one of those four ways, as a named insured, a spouse, a dependant, or a listed driver. For the person with no household policy that can reach them, there is no fix, because they were never buying insurance in the first place.

What happens at your renewal

If you already had a policy before July 1, 2026, you did not automatically lose your dollar coverage. The regulation says that on renewal, the benefits you had are deemed to continue as optional benefits in the same amounts, unless you and your insurer agree in writing that you are declining a benefit or changing an amount.

So the default is that your coverage carries over. The risk is what happens when someone offers you a lower premium and you say yes without reading what you gave up to get it.

On timing, the regulation is less tidy than it first appears. The restriction on who optional benefits reach is written to operate "despite any provision of a contract" from July 1, 2026 onward, which points toward immediate effect. But the optional structure itself is tied to policies entered into or renewed on or after that date. How the two provisions interact for a policy written before July 1 that has not yet renewed is not resolved on the face of the regulation, and reasonable arguments run both ways. In practice, expect the full effect to phase in across the twelve months of renewals following July 1.

Two things worth doing regardless:

• Get any change in writing before you agree to it. A reduction requires written agreement. Read the endorsement, the add-on pages of your policy that list your optional coverage and the dollar amounts behind it, not the quote summary.
• You cannot add benefits after an accident. Optional benefits can be purchased at any time before an accident. Not after.

One change that helps injured people

Not everything moved in the same direction. Under a separate amendment that also takes effect July 1, 2026, your auto insurer must pay medical and rehabilitation benefits first, even where the same expense could be covered by a supplementary health plan, such as coverage through your job or your spouse's job. Medication expenses are the exception and still go through your health plan first.

That reverses a rule that had insurers pushing injured people to exhaust their workplace benefits first. It is a meaningful improvement, and it is worth knowing if an adjuster tells you to submit to your employer's plan before they will consider a treatment plan.

If you were injured before July 1, 2026

Generally, the benefits available on a claim are the benefits that were in place on the date of the accident. If your collision happened before July 1, 2026, the earlier rules govern your entitlement.

One honest caveat. The restriction on who optional benefits reach is drafted to operate from July 1, 2026 onward despite what any contract says. Whether an insurer can use that language to affect a claim that was already open is not settled, and I expect it to be argued at the Licence Appeal Tribunal. If you are receiving benefits and your insurer suddenly changes position by pointing to the new rules, that is worth a second opinion before you accept it.

What to do now

1. Pull out your policy and find the optional benefits endorsement. Not the pink slip. The endorsement, the pages that name each optional benefit and the dollar amount behind it.
2. Check the income replacement number. If you could not work for six months, ask yourself honestly whether that weekly figure covers your rent or mortgage.
3. Check who is covered. If an adult child lives with you and drives your car occasionally, confirm they are listed as a driver. If someone in your household cycles or walks everywhere, ask your broker directly how your policy reaches them. If they hold a licence, listing them as a driver settles it. If they do not, and they are not financially dependent on you, the honest answer may be that it cannot, and you should know that now rather than later.
4. Do not decline anything to save a few dollars a month without understanding what you are declining.

Insurance is one of the few purchases where the cheapest version and the most expensive version look identical until the day you need it.

If you have already been injured in a collision, the rules that apply to your claim depend on your accident date, your policy, and which insurer is responsible for paying you. Those questions are not always obvious, and insurers do not always get them right.

Not sure if you have a claim? Take the 60-second assessment to get started. It's free and confidential.

Claim.ca is published by Marty Mikhail, Barrister & Solicitor, licensed by the Law Society of Ontario, practising with Quinn Thiele Mineault Grodzki LLP.

This article provides general information about Ontario law and is not legal advice. It does not create a solicitor and client relationship.