The Minister of Families, Children and Social Development confirmed to the House of Commons that the Trudeau government has been failing seniors following the call for Canadians to write the Prime Minister to demand a change.
Thank you to hundreds of Canadians who wrote to the Prime Minister demanding his government recognize the involuntary separation of married seniors when one moves into long term care.
My colleagues and I wrote to the Minister, but when Canadians from across the country heaped scorn onto the Prime Minister we saw quick action.
I had urged Canadians to write the Prime Minister to protest the decision by his government to deny involuntarily separated seniors the Guaranteed Income Supplement. When the Conservatives were the Government of Canada, in cases where couples who were previously not eligible for the supplement based on their total family income, and who were involuntarily separated, (for example, one spouse being admitted to a long-term care facility), the spouse remaining in the home could apply to be reassessed as a single individual rather than as part of a couple. Singles receive a higher benefit than individuals living together as a couple.
This provision had been quietly discontinued, forcing a number of seniors to face the immense economic burden of living below the same poverty level guidelines used for the calculation of the guaranteed income supplement.
What the government was doing to the most vulnerable seniors was heart breaking, but seeing the response by Canadians when they found out was heartwarming.
Nearly 900 individual Canadians sent the Prime Minister a letter via cherylgallant.com between the day Parliament returned on September 18 and the day the Liberals acknowledged their error on September 25.
Seniors were being ignored by liberals in and out of government until more Canadians spoke up.