The Minister responsible for Social Solidarity and Community Action, Chantal Rouleau, tabled a bill on Wednesday amending several aspects of the social assistance system that affect, among other things, recipient spouses, employment constraints and claims for false declarations.
Bill 71 aims to improve support for individuals and simplify the social assistance system.
“We are trying to move from a punitive regime to a more humane, simpler regime,” Minister Rouleau declared at a press briefing.
This is the first major reform of the regime in 20 years, if we exclude the entry into the scene, in 2023, of the new basic income program which targets people with physical disabilities.
The basic social assistance benefit in Quebec is $807 per month. Some people are also entitled to additional allowances for employment constraints, for example.
Less severe for false declarations
The bill would notably modify the penalties imposed on young beneficiaries whose parents are financially comfortable but with whom they do not live.
Bonuses will also be offered to people who return to school, but the amounts of these bonuses have not yet been revealed.
Minister Rouleau is also softening the penalties imposed on service providers guilty of false declarations by limiting the period for which her department can impose penalties to five years instead of 15.
The ministry will also be more lenient with people who make honest mistakes in their claims, the forms being, by the ministry’s own admission, quite complex.
“We do not want people to become poorer because they have unintentionally made a mistake,” the minister said.
The bill also expands access to the Objectif Emploi program to recipients who return to social assistance but were not able to access it the first time. Created during the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard in 2018, it was originally intended for young people and new applicants.
The Ministry also acknowledges that service providers sometimes have a combination of psychosocial problems that make them unfit for employment. Professionals other than doctors (social workers, for example) will then be able to recognise the existence of such incapacities.
New pilot projects also aim to relax the program’s criteria for certain groups who struggle to access it, such as people seeking to exit prostitution, for example.
Finally, measures have been planned for couples who live together. From now on, each spouse will receive their check and the State will be more generous when one of them acts as a caregiver. However, the ministry has not granted the wishes of groups that have been demanding year after year that people not be financially penalized when they decide to live as a couple.
No measures for asylum seekers
Quebec has 288,556 welfare recipients. Excluding asylum seekers, their number has fallen by 40% in 20 years, the ministry says.
However, the latter did not provide for measures specifically targeting asylum seekers.
The plan costs the state $3.3 billion annually. Despite the added resources and debt reductions planned for the program, the ministry does not expect to have to increase this budget and is counting on efficiency measures.
More details will follow.