The B.C. government is making the transition to employment easier
for families with children who receive income assistance by doubling their
monthly income exemption from $200 to $400 a month and increasing it from
$300 to $500 a month for families who have a child with a disability.

Effective Sept. 1, 2015, these changes won’t affect their income assistance
rates and these families will also be able to keep their basic health
supplement coverage for a full year when they leave income assistance for
employment. Health supplements give families access to dental, optical and
Ministry of Health MSP and Pharmacare programs.

Over the last few years, the Province has made a number of significant
changes to the BC Employment and Income Assistance program that are helping
people improve their futures and keep more of their hard-earned money.

Today’s policy announcement builds on these previous significant changes,
including:

* In 2012, earnings exemptions for people on disability assistance increased
from $500 to $800 a month and in January 2015, B.C. became the first
province in Canada to annualize those earnings exemptions up to $9,600 a
year. This means that a single person on disability can keep more of the
money they earn by calculating it annually instead of on a monthly basis.
* In Budget 2015, the Province made child-support payments fully exempt for
families receiving income and disability assistance; a change that will
provide an additional $32 million over the next three years for 3,200
families and 5,400 children.

More than 10,600 families on income assistance are expected to benefit from
the new earnings exemptions.