What Are Statutory Accident Benefits (SABS)? A Plain-Language Guide

Every auto insurance policy in Ontario carries a set of benefits that pay you — not the other driver — if you're injured in a collision. They're called Statutory Accident Benefits, usually shortened to SABS, and they work regardless of who caused the crash. Since July 1, 2026, most of them are optional, which means every Ontario driver now has to understand a system that used to run automatically. This guide is the plain-language map.

TopRates.ca is educational. Quotes are not offered or arranged on this site today. Nothing here is advice for your situation — it's the background to bring to a licensed insurance professional.

SABS is the accident-benefits schedule built into every Ontario auto policy — formally, Ontario Regulation 34/10 under the Insurance Act. It's the "no-fault" half of the system: after a collision, you claim these benefits from your own insurer, whoever caused the crash. Fault still exists — it's assigned under Ontario's Fault Determination Rules and still affects your premiums — but it doesn't decide who pays your medical bills or replaces your income while you recover.

Think of SABS as a bundle of separate benefits, each with its own job: some pay for treatment, some replace income, some pay for help around the house, and some support a family after a death. What changed in 2026 is which of those benefits every policy must include.

Ontario Regulation 383/24 amended the SABS so that, for policies entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2026, only three benefits remain mandatory in every policy: medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care. Every other benefit became optional — available to buy, but no longer automatic.

Two structural changes came with it. First, optional benefits now cover only a defined group: the named insured, their spouse, their dependants, and the drivers listed on the policy. Second, for accidents on or after July 1, 2026, the auto insurer pays first for medical and rehabilitation costs — before your workplace or private health plan — with one exception: medication, where your health plan still pays first.

These three cover the direct costs of getting better: treatment OHIP doesn't pay for (physiotherapy, counselling, assistive devices), rehabilitation services, and attendant care if you need help with daily living. They apply to everyone injured in the accident — drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists — and their dollar limits were not changed by the reform:

• $3,500 for most minor injuries, under the Minor Injury Guideline.
• $65,000 for injuries that are serious but not catastrophic, covering medical, rehabilitation and attendant care combined.
• $1,000,000 where an injury is designated a catastrophic impairment.

Higher optional limits exist for those who want more than the standard amounts — that part was true before the reform and remains true after it.

Each of these was automatic before July 1, 2026 and is now a choice. The amounts below come from the SABS itself and were unchanged by the reform — what changed is that you have to elect them.

• Replaces 70% of gross income up to $400 per week if injury keeps you from working, with optional higher tiers of $600, $800 or $1,000 per week. The benefit most working households relied on without knowing its name.
• For people with no income to replace — students, retirees, stay-at-home parents — who suffer a complete inability to carry on a normal life: $185 per week after a four-week waiting period, for up to 104 weeks.
• If the person who cares for children or other dependants is injured: $250 per week for the first person in need of care, plus $50 for each additional person. Standard coverage applies only to catastrophic impairment; optional coverage extends it to all injuries.
• Up to $100 per week for household work you can no longer do — with the same catastrophic-only standard and optional extension as the caregiver benefit.
• A lump sum of $25,000 to a surviving spouse and $10,000 per dependant, plus up to $6,000 for a funeral — with optional higher amounts available.
• Smaller benefits in the same group: lost educational expenses (a student who can't complete a paid-for term), visitors' expenses (family travelling to be with you), and damage to personal items like clothing, glasses and hearing aids.

A third small group — dependant care, indexation (which adjusts weekly benefits for inflation), and supplementary medical coverage — was already optional before the reform and simply remains so.

This is the reform's least-understood consequence. The mandatory benefits — medical, rehabilitation, attendant care — still cover everyone injured in the accident, including pedestrians and cyclists struck by the vehicle.

The optional benefits cover only four groups: the named insured, their spouse, their dependants, and listed drivers. Anyone outside that group — a friend borrowing the car, an unlisted passenger, a pedestrian — cannot draw on the policy's optional benefits. To recover lost income and similar losses, their route is generally a legal claim against the at-fault driver.

One household detail worth repeating: a driving teen is inside the covered group only if listed on the policy. Being family is not, by itself, enough.

Two different defaults, depending on where you start. A policy that renews on or after July 1, 2026 keeps its existing benefits, carried forward as optional coverage in the same amounts — they only disappear if you decline or reduce them in writing. A brand-new policy starts at the mandatory minimum unless optional benefits are actively added.

The practical difference: existing policyholders lose nothing by doing nothing. New policyholders — including newcomers to Canada buying a first Ontario policy — start from the smaller baseline and should treat the optional list as a real decision, not fine print.

The claim process was not changed by the reform. Notify your insurer promptly after an accident — the schedule contemplates notice within days, not weeks. The insurer sends an application package; the main claim form is the OCF-1, due back within 30 days of receiving the package. For medical and rehabilitation costs, remember the new payment order: your auto insurer pays first, except for medication, which still goes to your health plan first.

There is no universal answer — the honest framing is a set of questions, matched to how your household actually runs:

• If you couldn't work for six months, what income would you actually have — and does an employer disability plan exist behind you?
• Who in your household has no paycheque to replace — and would the non-earner benefit matter for them?
• Who provides care and housework — and what would replacing that cost per week?
• Is every regular driver listed on the policy?
• What does your workplace benefits plan already cover, and where does it stop?

Both FSRA — Ontario's insurance regulator — and the Insurance Bureau of Canada publish consumer self-assessment checklists for this decision, and a licensed insurance professional can walk the options against your actual policy and its prices.

For the full July 1, 2026 reform in one place, see the Ontario auto reform guide.

The Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (O. Reg. 34/10) and Ontario Regulation 383/24 via Ontario e-Laws; the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), including its 2026 indexation guidance; the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). Benefit amounts are as published in the SABS; confirm current amounts and your policy's specifics with your insurer or a licensed professional.

TopRates.ca is educational. Quotes are not offered or arranged on this site today.