Three months after Ontario changed how accident benefits work on auto policies, most drivers have not touched theirs. A LowestRates.ca survey of 292 Ontario drivers, published in October 2026, found that 76 per cent say they have not changed their accident benefits since the July 1 reforms took effect. At the same time, 41 per cent say they are not well versed in which optional benefits their own policy carries.
That gap is the real story. Many drivers kept their coverage by default rather than by decision, and defaults deserve a second look before renewal.
What changed on July 1, 2026
Before July 1, a standard Ontario auto policy came with a fixed package of accident benefits. After the reforms, only medical, rehabilitation, and attendant care benefits remain mandatory. A list of other benefits that used to be automatic became optional, which means drivers can now choose to keep them or remove them, usually for a lower premium.
Policies that renewed on or after July 1 generally kept their existing benefits in place unless the driver chose to remove them in writing. That is one reason the survey numbers look the way they do: doing nothing kept the coverage, and most drivers did nothing.
What the survey actually found
The survey found that 66 per cent of respondents were aware of the July 1 changes, which is a solid awareness level for a reform that only shows up at renewal time. Awareness, however, is not the same as understanding. While 76 per cent had not changed their benefits, 41 per cent said they do not know which optional benefits they currently have.
The most popular benefit among respondents was income replacement, named by 28 per cent. That makes sense: income replacement pays a portion of lost wages while you cannot work after a collision, and for most households it keeps the bills paid during recovery.
Another finding matters for anyone weighing whether to trim coverage to save money. About 40 per cent of respondents said they have other coverage, such as workplace or disability benefits, that could help after a collision injury. But 44 per cent said they do not. If you are in the second group, your auto policy may be the only income protection standing between an injury and a financial crunch.
The benefits that became optional
Here is the list that now sits on the optional side of an Ontario auto policy: income replacement, caregiver benefits, non-earner benefits, housekeeping and home maintenance expenses, visitor expenses, lost educational expenses, damage to personal items, death and funeral benefits, and indexation, which ties payouts to inflation.
Each of these covers a different kind of cost after a collision. Caregiver benefits help when an injured person can no longer care for a dependant. Housekeeping and home maintenance benefits cover help around the house during recovery. Visitor expenses cover the cost of family visiting an injured person in hospital or rehab. They are smaller line items than income replacement, but families tend to discover them only when they need them.
Why keeping them is usually the safer default
Removing an optional benefit usually lowers your premium, and that saving is real. The question is what you give up for it. An injury that keeps you off work for months can cost far more in lost income than a year of premiums for income replacement coverage. A broker quoted in the survey coverage put it plainly: drivers should weigh small monthly savings against the risk of months of lost pay and household costs if injured.
There is also a second-order effect worth knowing. Drivers who drop accident benefits and are later injured may have fewer options than they expect, and disputes over who pays can take time to sort out. Keeping the benefits you already have avoids that problem entirely, and it costs nothing extra at renewal if you simply leave them in place.
None of this means every driver needs every optional benefit. A driver with strong workplace disability coverage and a short commute may reasonably decide differently from a self-employed driver whose income stops the day an injury happens. The point is that the decision should be made on purpose, with your own situation in front of you, not by accident at renewal.
What to check before your renewal
Your renewal documents list the accident benefits on your policy, usually in a section near the coverage summary. Before your next renewal, pull that page out and answer four questions.
First, which optional benefits are currently on your policy? If you cannot tell from the documents, ask your broker to walk through them with you. Second, what other coverage do you have? Workplace disability plans, group benefits, and personal disability policies all change the math, but only if you know their limits and waiting periods.
Third, what would happen to your household income if you could not work for three months? If the answer is uncomfortable, income replacement deserves to stay. Fourth, who depends on you for care or housekeeping? If an injury would leave dependants or a household without help, the caregiver and housekeeping benefits matter more than their premium cost suggests.
Bring those answers to your broker before you sign the renewal. A short conversation now beats a coverage surprise later.
The bottom line
Ontario drivers, by and large, have not rushed to strip accident benefits off their policies. That is a sensible instinct, and the survey suggests most drivers share it. But keeping coverage by default is only half the job. Knowing what you kept, and why, is the other half, and it takes about ten minutes with your renewal documents.
If you are not sure what is on your policy, that is a normal place to be: four in ten Ontario drivers in the survey said the same thing. The fix is simple. Read the renewal, note the optional benefits listed, and talk through any gaps with your broker before the renewal date arrives.
Related coverage: auto insurance.