Applications for N.B. workers benefit running behind government projections

Applications for a one-time $300 tax-free "workers' benefit" offered by the New Brunswick government have been running well below projections, rekindling criticism the program excludes too many moderate income households, particularly those headed by pensioners.

"I think the premier forgets that these are the voters, these are the people that vote," Cecile Cassista, a seniors' advocate and Riverview town councillor.  

"I think the premier needs to go back and take a look at this and make sure that the seniors benefit from this $300."  

In January, Premier Blaine Higgs announced his government would be helping "working" families with incomes below $70,000 with the cost of living by issuing $300 "affordability" cheques to approved applicants

The program excludes individuals who cannot show they had employment income in the last two years of at least $3,000. But even with that disqualification, the province has been insisting 250,000 couples and individuals will still qualify for the money.

"This is a $75 million program," the Premier's Office reiterated in a media release in late February in support of its claim that at least 250,000 would be helped.

People have until June to apply for the money but the Department of Finance believed most would act quickly to claim the benefit.

Applications opened on Feb. 27 and the department added $58.8 million to its current year budget on the expectation it would receive 196,000 applications by the end of its fiscal year on March 31, a 34-day period

However, by the end of day last Thursday, halfway through the 34-day period, just 35,100 applications had come in, a sluggish early pace that has only shown signs of slowing further.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, department figures showed new applications had dropped to just above 1,000 per day, half the rate of earlier in the month.

In an email, Finance Department spokesperson Morgan Bell said that as early applicants begin to receive their $300 payments, the government believes interest in the program will increase.

"We anticipate experiencing a continued rise in applications, particularly now that cheques are already arriving in mailboxes," Bell wrote.

Higgs said the $300 benefit was limited to people who can show some employment income because those people had been "left out of different affordability measures we have put in place over the last year or so."

Higgs said pensioners in particular are being helped separately with an increase in the "low-income seniors benefit" and with changes in contribution amounts required to support a spouse in a nursing home.