The Government of Canada is committed to supporting vulnerable, low-income seniors who are experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19.
The Government of Canada is providing a one-time grant payment this week to Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and Allowance recipients who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit or the Canada Recovery Benefit in 2020. This measure was announced in the 2021 Economic and Fiscal Update.
The one-time grant payments will alleviate the financial hardship of seniors who qualified and received pandemic benefits in 2020, and who faced a reduction or loss of GIS benefits in July 2021. The one-time grant payment compensates eligible seniors for the full loss of their GIS or Allowance benefits. The amount is equal to the annualized amount of their reduced payment. For example, if an individual's monthly GIS was reduced by $100, the individual will receive a $1,200 one-time grant payment.
Seniors do not need to take any action to receive the one-time grant payment; they will automatically receive it in the same way they receive their GIS payments. These one-time grant payments will be issued by direct deposit on April 19, 2022; clients who have not signed up for direct deposit will receive a cheque by mail by no later than the end of April 2022.
The Government has taken action to prevent future reductions in GIS or Allowance benefits for seniors who received pandemic benefits in 2021 by introducing Bill C-12. Bill C-12, which received Royal Assent on March 3, 2022, amends the Old Age Security Act to exclude any income received under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, the Canada Recovery Benefit, 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.
