A New Brunswick mother says she’s frustrated to learn she’s ineligible for the province’s emergency funding meant to serve as a bridge between now and when federal funds kick in.
Lindsey McDonough of Burton, N.B., is a mother to a four-year-old daughter.
She said she wasn’t even able to submit an application to the New Brunswick Workers Emergency Income Benefit.
McDonough expects it is because she wasn’t formally laid off.
“If I’m not getting money and I can’t go to work, what do you expect?” she says. “It’s frustrating, very frustrating.”
The New Brunswick government previously announced the one-time $900 emergency benefit for workers or self-employed people who lost their jobs due to the province’s state of emergency, if you met certain criteria.
A cleaner at CFB Gagetown, McDonough was forced to leave work to care for her daughter as a result of daycare closures.
She has applied for employment insurance (EI) and is optimistic she’ll be approved, but has concern about what the coming weeks could look like.
“I’m not sure the amount I’ll be getting, but hopefully it’s enough,” she tells Global News.
“I still need to pay bills, and like I said, I took over my mortgage earlier this year.”
A provincial government spokesperson said as of Friday afternoon, there have been 54,000 applications for the $900 benefit which is being administered through the Canadian Red Cross.
Of those, 16,000 people have been confirmed with payments already being processed as the province works around the clock to process applications, according to a statement from Erika Jutras, a spokesperson with the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.
But when contacted by Global News on Thursday, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said something different, implying that the New Brunswick Workers Emergency Income Benefit would cover someone in McDonough’s situation.
“If anyone has left their job because of a COVID-related item, which would mean they had to stay home and look after their children, then they would qualify for the federal program and so our $900 is something as an interim there,” said Higgs.
McDonough says it’s ridiculous there is uncertainty over whether or not she qualifies.
McDonough says she hopes for federal assistance — and fast.
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