February 8, 2022 Gatineau, Quebec Employment and Social Development Canada
As the global pandemic continues in Canada, the Government will continue to support vulnerable, low-income seniors who are experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) were intended to support people who lost their job through the outset of the pandemic. However, the Government recognizes that some Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and Allowance recipients may face lower benefit payments because of the income they received from the CERB and CRB.
As announced in the Economic and Fiscal Update, the Government will provide up to $742.4 million for one-time payments. These payments will alleviate the financial hardship of those seniors who qualified and received CERB and CRB in 2020 but who subsequently saw that they counted as income and impacted their GIS or Allowance benefits. This automatic, one-time payment will support those who saw a loss of GIS or Allowance by compensating them for the full, annualized loss amount. Seniors would not need to take any action to receive the one-time payment.
To ensure that this issue does not reoccur, Canada's Minister of Seniors, Kamal Khera, introduced Bill C-12 in Parliament today. Bill C-12 would amend the Old Age Security Act to exclude any income received under CERB, CRB, the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit, the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, and the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit for the purposes of calculating the amount of GIS and Allowance payable beginning in July 2022.
The Government will continue to provide support to seniors who need it most.
