Child benefit clawed from welfare cheques

Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean said last week that he doesn’t like the government of Nunavut’s practice of deducting child tax benefit amounts from welfare cheques.

Saying that “the issue of poverty and the plight of low-wage earners is very close to me,” McLean said he’s concerned that the Nunavut government is not allowing welfare recipients to keep money given to them as a supplement to the federal child tax benefit.

“Following the standards set by the NWT and other jurisdictions, families receiving social assistance have never benefited from what could represent a significant amount of additional and much-needed money. This is because the supplement is considered to be non-exempt income and triggers a cut in the family’s social assistance cheques,” McLean said.

“Mr. Speaker, year after year across Canada, families headed by single-parent mothers face the highest risk of poverty of any family type year after year and in Nunavut the high cost of living simply adds to that risk.”

Education Minister Peter Kilabuk, whose department is responsible for welfare in Nunavut, now called “income support,” said MLAs will get a chance to review the welfare system after the department releases an income support review document, after it’s reviewed by cabinet.