(OTTAWA) Ottawa plans to pay millions of dollars in April to low-income seniors who had their Guaranteed Income Supplement cut because they received an emergency benefit during the pandemic.
Posted yesterday at 5:06 p.m.
The federal government has set aside $742.4 million to help some 200,000 low-income seniors recover what they lost on their Guaranteed Income Supplement cheques.
About 83,000 seniors had even lost this Guaranteed Income Supplement because pandemic emergency benefits had pushed their incomes above the threshold that allowed them to qualify.
Originally, these adjustments were not due until May, but Elders Minister Kamal Khera said on Monday the government now expects these payments to be made in mid-April.
These payments could even be made earlier, as early as next month, to seniors in a precarious financial situation. Minister Khera said the government will work with MPs to identify these most urgent cases.
Mme Khera made the announcement in the House on Monday afternoon. This question obsessed the Liberal government for months, as dramatic stories of seniors in need continued to emerge.
NDP Seniors Critic Rachel Blaney said she’s happy to see the government act sooner than expected, noting that seniors can finally breathe a sigh of relief. His colleague Daniel Blaikie, the party’s finance critic, hopes the government will act more quickly in the future when faced with a problem stemming from one of its own policies.