Government of Canada introduces legislation to support low-income seniors who received pandemic benefits

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.

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