Some eligible Albertans will begin to automatically receive support payments from the provincial government before the month is over to help them grapple with the increasing cost of living.
Affordability and Utilities Minister Matt Jones was joined by Children’s Services Minister Mickey Amery and Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish at a news conference in Edmonton on Monday morning to announce more details about the payments.
The support payments for eligible Albertans will be $100 per month and given out over a six-month time frame. The government estimates the total cost of the support payment program will be $900 million.
READ MORE: Details on Alberta’s affordability payments expected ‘soon’
Beginning Jan. 18, Alberta seniors 65 or older who are not receiving the Alberta Seniors Benefit and eligible parents with children under 18 can apply online or in person at various locations across the province to receive the payments. Parents whose applications are approved will receive $100 per month for every child they have.
“In order to use the portal, eligible parents and seniors will be required to have a verified account,” the government said in a news release. “To ensure that the application process is as smooth as possible, Albertans should sign up for their verified account or confirm they have an existing verified account with accurate information as soon as possible.”
The government said foster and kinship caregivers, and all clients accessing Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), income support or PDD payments, are automatically enrolled in the program and do not need to sign up. Their first payment is to arrive on Jan. 31.
Payments will arrive through either an automatic deposit or via a physical cheque.
Plans to bring in measures to help Albertans cope with inflation and the cost of living were first announced by Premier Danielle Smith in late November. The support payments introduced Monday are one of a number of measures the provincial government is taking to address the rising cost of living. In all, the initiatives are set to cost $2.8 billion over three years.
Amery said the government is able to issue the support payments “thanks to our strong fiscal position,” widely credited to an uptick in resource royalty revenues for Alberta.
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“We are doing everything we can to ease some of the burdens,” he said.
Jones said his government is listening to Albertans about the economic challenges they are facing.
“Parents are buying less food, less nutritious food and are struggling to keep their children in activities they need and love,” he said.
Jones added that for people receiving AISH or income support, the support payments will be considered “exempt income” and not impact other benefits.
For those applying for support payments, Glubish said eligibility will be based on 2021 tax data so that applicants can provide exact numbers and the government is able to accurately vet applications.
When asked how the support payments would work for parents who are separated but have children together, Jones said both parents would need to apply and if granted the support payments, would each receive $50 per month.
Eligibility details
Albertans 65 or older who have household incomes below $180,000 will be eligible for the support payments, the government said.
Families with household incomes of less than $180,000 per year will also be eligible for a total of $600 worth of support payments for each child under 18 and over six months of age.
“Applications can be submitted until June 30, with payments being retroactive to include previous months when a person was eligible,” the government said.
The government said once an application process has been successfully completed, it expects to deliver the first payment to that recipient by the end of the same month.
“The Alberta government will not send texts or emails asking Albertans to submit personal or banking information to receive payments,” the government said.
Reaction
NDP MLA Irfan Sabir, who also serves as the Opposition’s justice critic, said he hopes the online application process works smoothly, describing similar online initiatives introduced by the government as “one failure after another.”
“As recently as Saturday, Danielle Smith said she expected this (online portal) would likely crash on Day 1,” he said in a news release.
“…And for many Albertans there are no benefits available through this new portal.”
When asked about potential problems the online portal for support payments could face, Glubish said unlike similar initiatives taken earlier during the COVID-19 pandemic, this support payment initiative was able to be put together over a longer period of time to ensure it will work properly.
“I’m confident this is going to be a much more convenient system to use,” he told reporters.
Sabir also said he wants the UCP government to look at other ways of making life more affordable for Albertans, including exploring how to reduce the cost of auto insurance.
Meaghon Reid is the executive director of Vibrant Communities Calgary, a non-profit organization advocating for long-term strategies to address the root causes of poverty. She also expressed concerns about the application process potentially causing problems for people, especially those without computers and those who do not file income taxes.
However, she suggested such support payments are overall a good thing.
“We were pleased to see these measures taken, at least in the short term, because affordability for people in poverty is really in a crisis right now,” Reid said, adding the automatic enrolment into the support payment program for people receiving AISH or income supports is critical.
But Reid added that she worries some people who need support still will not receive it though this program.
“One of the groups we’re concerned about is singles who are between the ages of 18 and 65, who might (not already be getting benefits),” she said. “They’re usually really overrepresented in deep poverty numbers.”
Reid noted for some people, the $100 payments could make the difference between eating or not eating on some days.
“Any money if you’re struggling is a positive thing,” she said. “These one-time payments are good in the short term of course, however they don’t go very far in terms of addressing the mountain of bills that Albertans continue to be having right now.”
Chetan Dave, an associate professor of economics at University of Alberta, said “giving folks who need it some additional cash to get them over this inflation hump is probably a good idea, in terms of short-term action that a government might want to take.”
“(But) we can’t just keep going back and forth, index one day not index the other day and create uncertainty for individuals and more critically businesses,” he said, referring to the government’s announcement in November that it would be re-indexing AISH and other benefit programs.
READ MORE: Alberta government benefit programs to be re-indexed
Dave added that while he applauds the short-term measures to address inflation for Albertans, he is concerned about post-secondary students and Albertans without children who need help potentially not benefiting from the payments.
The economist said he believes the provincial government also has more work to do to address the issues in the long term.
“They’re short-term measures. They’re not a plan,” Dave said. “We’ve just been through this (COVID-19) pandemic — we’re kind of still in this pandemic in a sense — and we’ve ridden it out on an ocean of debt nationally.
“In Alberta, we happen to be lucky because the oil prices are such that our… coffers got filled a fair bit. But in Alberta, we tend to rely a little too much on oil to finance our government spending and, in the longer term, I think we have to think about diversifying sources of revenue.”
Dave added he believes the government should consider the potential benefits of implementing a sales tax while simultaneously finding ways to reduce income taxes.
–With files from Global News’ Morgan Black and Adam MacVicar and The Canadian Press’ Dean Bennett
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