FRANCAIS

January 05, 2004

Manitoba families and children receiving income assistance will benefit from the full restoration of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS), Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick has announced.

"This is another step toward improving the quality of the lives of low-income Manitobans and toward ensuring that no child be deprived of opportunity because of the debilitating effects of poverty," said Melnick. "We are pleased to be able to deliver on this important commitment."

The changes, including details of improvements in basic income assistance rates, were outlined on her behalf today by Doug Martindale, MLA for Burrows, at the Andrews Street Family Centre in Winnipeg, a neighbourhood resource centre that offers a variety of services for inner-city residents and provides supports for local families and residents.

"Every child deserves the right start in life and we must continue to help people in need to achieve their full potential," said Martindale. "Today's announcement is an important step in increasing support and benefiting families throughout our province."

For families with children ages 12 to 17 receiving the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS), the changes become effective January 2004 for February's benefits. The practice of "clawing back" Employment and Income Assistance payments has ended. A family with three children now has almost $3,900 more in disposable income each year to help them raise their children.

In January 2003, the NCBS was restored for families with children ages 7 to 11; in July 2001, it was restored for those with children 6 and under; and in July 2000, all NCBS increases were passed on to families receiving income assistance. This final step ensures the benefit is provided to all Manitoba families that qualify. Since 2000, the changes have benefited 23,000 children in 11,000 families.

The provincial government is also increasing basic income assistance rates for single people and couples with no children in the general assistance category, and for all adults enrolled in the persons with disabilities category. This will benefit 27,915 adults and increase their income assistance by $240 per year. This change builds on previous improvements to work incentives, school supply budgets for children and an exemption of certain lump sum payments for persons with disabilities to help improve their quality of life.

Manitoba has also increased support to other programs and services, such as child care, that reduce child poverty and help parents find and keep jobs. Since 2000, the provincial government has increased funding for child care by over $22 million or 41.5 per cent.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION.

Since 2000, Manitoba has made significant progress in reducing child poverty. One key objective was to phase out the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) for families on income assistance.

• July 2001 – phased out the clawback of the NCBS for all families on income assistance with children six and under.
• January 2003 – phased out the clawback of the NCBS for all families on income assistance with children between ages 7 and 11.
• January 2004 – phased out the clawback of the NCBS for all other families on income assistance.
• Throughout the phase-out of the clawback, all families on income assistance allowed to retain increases to the NCBS without reducing income assistance benefits.
• The restoration of NCBS benefits for families on income assistance means $13.7 million more in the hands of low income families in Manitoba.
• For example, a single parent with two children aged 8 and 10 had 20 per cent more income in 2003 than they did in 2001.

Other improvements for families on income assistance that help alleviate child poverty:

• Increased earnings exemptions for single parents and couples with children, to allow families to keep more of the money earned through employment without having their income assistance benefits reduced.
• Increased annual school supply allowance.
• School supplies allowance extended to children in publicly funded nursery schools.
• Extension of training supports from one year to two years for single parents with children under six.

Steps taken to ensure low- and moderate-income Manitobans have better services in all areas including:

• Building, renovating and rehabilitating affordable housing. Through programs such as the Canada-Manitoba Affordable Housing Initiative and Neighbourhoods Alive!, 2,000 new units of affordable housing are available, and 2,500 more will be completed over the next four years.
• Ensuring access to affordable, quality day care. There has been funding for 1,700 new child care spaces. Funding for day care has increased 41 per cent since 2000.
• Ensuring all children get the best start in life through Healthy Child’s new parenting supports, FAS prevention strategies, parent-child resource centres and community parent-child coalitions across Manitoba.
• Introduction of Canada’s first pre-natal benefit. Since its introduction in 2001, more than 10,000 applicants have received the Healthy Baby benefit – of these, 22 per cent were women living in First Nations communities

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