Section 11 - General Assistance
Policies
General Assistance Cases - Automated (PDF 180 KB)
11.1.1 Definition and Legislative Authority
General assistance is the name given to assistance provided by EIA to participants who are not eligible under any of the categories of eligibility described in Section 5(1) of the Act. In other words, a general assistance applicant or participant is an applicant or participant who is
- not aged (see section 12.1);
- not a person with a disability (see section 7.1 and 12.2);
- not a single parent (see section 8.1);
- not a child in the care of an adult other than their parent or legal guardian (see section 10.1);
- not an applicant or participant with dependants in need of special care (see section 6.1.5 and section 12.3);
- not an applicant residing in a crisis intervention facility (see section 9.3.1); and
- not a special case (see section 9.1.1 to 9.2.1).
11.1.2 (deleted)
See Section 6.1.4.
11.1.3 Employment Expectations and Sanctions
Policy
New General Assistance Childless Case (GACC) Letter (PDF 100 KB)
SAMIN Letter – Sanction Review (SARE) (PDF 88 KB)
Tracking and Monitoring of Work Expectations (PDF 154 KB)
Work Expectation Codes (PDF 38 KB)
Employment Expectations
Under section 10(1)(a) of the Regulation, all general assistance (GA) applicants and participants are subject to employment expectations, unless they have been deferred. (For more on who is subject to employment expectations, see section 6.3.5. For more on the circumstances under which employment expectations may be deferred, see section 6.5.3).
Under sections section 10(1)(e) to (g) of the Regulation, all GA applicants and participants who are subject to employment expectations must satisfy EIA staff that they:
- have not quit or been fired from a job that they might reasonably have held (see section 6.5.4);
- have not refused employment that they might reasonably have obtained (see section 6.5.4); and
- are undertaking any employability enhancement measure recommended by EIA staff.
Sanctions
Under section 10(2) of the Regulation, assistance may be denied, reduced, suspended or discontinued when childless GA applicants fail to comply with the employment expectations described above.
Under section 10(3) of the Regulation, GA applicants and participants with dependent children may be subject to an assistance reduction of $50 per month for failure to comply with the employment expectations described above.
11.1.4 Basic Assistance
Rates applicable to general assistance participants
Basic assistance rates for general assistance (GA) households are found in Schedule A, section 7 of the Regulation.
11.1.5 Special Needs
General assistance participants are eligible for special needs. See section 21 for more detailed information on special needs.
11.1.6 Health Services
The following sections contain health services provisions specific to general assistance participants:
- Health services cards: see section 22.1.2 and section 22.1.4;
- Optical: see section 22.1.1; and
- Dental: see section 22.1.1.
