Some low-income Nova Scotians waiting months for government payments as demand surges

Janet Simmonds looks at her shelf of canned goods from a food bank in her Spryfield, N.S., neighborhood and wonders how she will pull together a Christmas dinner — or any dinner at all. 

She's late on bills and her medications are expensive, so she's having to make some tough decisions.

"Choose what bills get paid, choose what medication gets paid. And then if there's any left over, we buy groceries."

Simmonds, 67, has been waiting for government support for months. She applied for the provincial seniors care grant in early September, and the heating assistance rebate program when it opened in October.

Together, the payments would total $1,350 — and with her meagre income, she was counting on them. 

The program websites state the payments should be received eight weeks after applying. Simmonds received the payments the last few years with no issues, but this year she found the program confusing and received multiple letters asking for more information. 

"I know I'm not the only one," Simmonds said. "So to bring this up so people realize that there's a problem with the system and maybe the system will get fixed."

According to non-profit organizations that work with low-income people and opposition MLA offices, Simmonds is right — she isn't the only one left in the lurch.

They say the program requirements are unclear, they are seeing people wait for months, and sometimes applications won't even show up on the online portal meant to track their status. 

"We were telling people at the outset it's going to be an eight-week wait, but oftentimes these kind of one-time payments tend to come in a little bit earlier than that," said Leigh MacLean, outreach co-ordinator at Chebucto Connections in Spryfield. "But we are seeing people that are waiting three to four months."

MacLean said Chebucto Connections is seeing double the need for help with food and support compared to last year. 

"It's gone under zero [degrees] quite a few times, so they're asking for help ... or they're just cutting everything else. They're not buying food. They're not buying their prescriptions. They're making sure their apartment's heated."

Govt says meeting 8-week standard is 'challenging'

According to the Department of Service Nova Scotia, the heating assistance rebate program has received 116,382 applications since October, and 77,000 have been processed.

"The large volume of applications received in the first few days of the program have made it challenging to meet the eight-week timeline for some applicants," said spokesperson Geoff Tobin. "It can also take longer if more information is needed or if the application hasn't been completed correctly."

Tobin says since the program opened, the department has received roughly double the number of applications it had at the same time last year. And it has approved nearly double the number that were accepted by this time in 2022.

As for the seniors care grant, the Department of Seniors and Long Term Care says it is ahead of the eight-week target. The department has already received 35,000 applications since the program opened for the year on Sept. 1, and approved more than 28,000.

Last year, the program received just over 50,000 applications in the seven months it was open. 

'No excuse' say opposition MLAs

Liberal leader Zach Churchill said in an interview Monday he has been hearing from constituency offices about people waiting beyond the eight-week threshold for payments. He said this is a cause for concern.

"This is a very expensive time to live in Nova Scotia right now," Churchill said. "We've got some of the highest taxes in the country. Power rates are going up, food prices are going up, people are paying more in taxes on fuel and a lot of people need these grants to make ends meet, particularly this time of year."

NDP leader Claudia Chender said she also heard about the backlog, and speaks to people every day who are struggling to pay rent, pharmacare premiums, groceries and power bills. 

"We have been saying for over a year now that this government is not doing enough to help people who need it the most. And even where they say they're doing things, the money is not flowing," Chender said. 

"And what might seem like a relatively insignificant sum to some people is the difference between having heat or not to others. And there's no excuse for that money not being delivered yet."

Chender said she is also hearing complaints about the heating assistance rebate program payment being decreased from $1,000 per household to $600 this year.