Thousands of low-income seniors press Ottawa to restore cut-off GIS cheques

Pandemic benefits made some low-income seniors too 'rich' for the guaranteed income supplement this year. But with no CERB and now, no GIS, some seniors wonder how they'll survive.

As she turned 65 last March, Luann Bannister was thrilled to be able to find the perfect home to rent in the downtown Edmonton neighbourhood she grew up in.

As a single senior, she had carefully calculated how much she could afford to pay for rent — a calculation that included the federal guaranteed income supplement (GIS), a benefit worth as much as $950 a month that is paid out to about 4.5 million seniors across the country.

But then, as Bannister was preparing to move into the home she’d rented — Ottawa pulled the budgetary rug out from under her.

“I get a notice from the government telling me that my GIS has been depleted,” Bannister said in an interview this week. “So that was panic city. All of a sudden I signed a lease and I don’t have money to cover the bills.”

And now, as winter approaches, she’s facing a dark, cold season as she tries to keep her utility bills as low as possible.

“Well, the lights don’t go on once it gets dark, that’s for sure. The heat is so low it’s freezing to death. I have to plan how many trips I make when I’m driving. A gourmet meal is Kraft Dinner,” she said. “It’s to the point where I just don’t know how I’m going to survive.”

Bannister is not alone. There are tens of thousands of low-income seniors across the country like her who received notice over the last few months that their GIS payments would be cut. Why? Because the pandemic benefits those seniors received in 2020 — benefits like the Canada Emergency Recover Benefit (CERB) — put them temporarily into a higher-income bracket and made them appear to Revenue Canada as if they were no longer “low-income” seniors.

“This is a very serious problem for low-income seniors across Ontario and across Canada,” said Graham Webb, a lawyer and executive director for the Toronto-based Advocacy Centre for the Elderly.