More details on Alberta’s proposed inflation relief measures

The changes outlined below take effect January 1, 2023.

The maximum core monthly benefit rates for single people with no children will increase by six percent:

$1,685 to $1,787 – AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped)
$745 to $790 – Income Support (expected to work)
$866 to $919 – Income Support (barriers to full employment)
$286 to $303 – Alberta Seniors Benefit

Benefit payments under the Alberta Child and Family Benefit, which provides aid to low and middle-income families, will increase by six percent:

One child – $120
Two children – $198
Three children – $260
Four children – $307

Minister of Seniors, Community, and Social Services Jeremy Nixon says he remains committed to supporting vulnerable Albertans.

“I am proud to see our government taking steps to support seniors and vulnerable Albertans by increasing social benefit payments,” says Nixon. “These programs are vital to supporting thousands of individuals and families, which is why it is so important to ensure they are kept in line with increasing costs of food, utilities and other essential goods and services.”

More details on the provincial government’s affordability initiatives are available on the Government of Alberta website.

Marie Renaud, NDP Critic for Community and Social Services, issued the following statement in response to the reinstatement of indexing for government financial benefit programs:

“Let’s be clear about what’s happening. In 2018, our Alberta NDP government tied the value of those benefits to the cost of living in Alberta.

“After the UCP was elected in 2019, Jeremy Nixon stood with every single one of his UCP colleagues and voted to cut these support programs for the disabled and the most vulnerable in our communities, even after the UCP explicitly promised they wouldn’t.

“Their justification for these devastating cuts was that their government couldn’t afford it but somehow they managed to pump tens of millions into a useless war room while thousands of Albertans struggled to make ends meet.

“For three years this government has stood idly by and let our fellow Albertans fall deeper into the abyss.

“Re-indexing supports, on a go-forward basis, is the very least this government can do.

“This move, which only comes six-months before an election, clearly shows this government’s motivation and lack of compassion and understanding of what people have gone through for three devastating years.

“They cannot ignore the fact that people suffered for years during a pandemic and record-high inflation, and must make these adjustments retroactive.”

(With files from rdnewsNOW)

by David Opinko/LethbridgeNewsNOW

More details on Alberta’s proposed inflation relief measures

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