Question Period Note: Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)

What is Service Canada doing to ensure that seniors continue receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

• Service Canada is committed to supporting seniors and ensuring they receive the benefits to which they are entitled.
• Entitlement for the GIS is reassessed every year in July based on the previous year’s income. With the deferral of the tax filling deadline for 2019, a temporary measure was put in place to avoid suspending benefits because of missing income information.
• June 2020 benefits are maintained and paid separately until December 2020 or until the 2019 income information becomes available, whichever is earlier. 214,000 recipients benefited from this exceptional measure.
• As of the end of September, the majority of individuals had provided their income information, however it had still not been provided by 63,000 GIS recipients. If this information is not received and processed by November 29, their GIS payments will be suspended in January 2021.Since then, over 20,000 individuals have provided this information either to CRA or Service Canada, further reducing the number of individuals who may be suspended.
• Service Canada has and continues to take a number of measures to reach out to these individuals including:
o Increased communications via Ministerial announcements and social media;
o Sending letters directly to all individuals with missing income information; and
o Proactive outreach activities with seniors organizations and telephone calls directly to impacted individuals

The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) provides financial assistance to seniors who have little or no income other than the Old Age Security (OAS) pension. The program provides up to $10,780 per year for a single OAS pensioner and up to $6,489 per year for each member of a couple (January to September 2019). These amounts include the ‘GIS top up’ introduced in 2011, and increased in July 2016, which provides the lowest income seniors with additional benefits of up to $1,670 per year for single seniors and $473 per year for each member of a couple.

Basic GIS

The GIS is income-tested to ensure that the highest benefits are provided to the lowest-income seniors. The basic GIS is reduced by $1 for every $2 of net income as defined in the Income Tax Act. The GIS is currently phased out at an annual income level of $18,240 for single seniors, and at a family income level of $24,096 for senior couples (January to March 2019). All sources of income are taken into account in assessing eligiblility for the GIS with a few exceptions, such as the first $3,500 of employment income.

Annual Reassessment of the GIS

Once individuals are found eligible and start receiving the GIS, the amount a beneficiary is entitled to receive is reviewed every year effective in July and is based on the individual’s net income in the previous calendar year, or the combined net income in the case of a couple. Therefore, from year to year, GIS payments can increase, decrease or even cease according to reported changes in annual net income

In order for a client’s entitlement for the GIS to be renewed each July, they should file an individual Income Tax and Benefit return with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) by April 30. Alternatively, individuals can provide their income information directly to Service Canada. This can be done by phone, mail or in-person. Using income information from an individual’s federal Income Tax and Benefit Return or the income information received directly from the individual, where applicable, Service Canada reviews the individual’s entitlement for the GIS and if the individual is still entitled, their benefits are automatically renewed.

More than 96% of clients are automatically reassessed for the GIS without an interruption to their benefits. In the remaining cases, the necessary income information of the GIS recipient, or that of their spouse, was not available to the Department prior to the start of the July payment period.

Each July, Service Canada mails letters to GIS recipients for whom no income information was received. The letter indicates that their ongoing entitlement cannot be determined without their income information, and includes a Statement of Income form, allowing seniors to provide income information without having to file a tax return. Seniors are also advised that they can also provide their income information to Service Canada over the phone to prevent or limit any interruption in their benefit payments. Most clients take immediate actions and are not suspended.

By the end of September, over 98% of GIS recipients have been reassessed. For the remaining clients, most of them will have provided the missing income information by May of the following year and are back into pay with no loss of benefits, given the 11-month retroactive provisions of the legislation.

Proactive communications

Additional communications and outreach activities have been undertaken and will continue in October:
• Letters sent to all 63,000 recipients who had not provided their income information by October 1, 2020.
• Calls to up to 45,000 recipients who received the letter (calls being made between October 9 and November 13).
• Message in the Minister Schulte Newsletter.
• Social media messages

• The vast majority of GIS clients are automatically reassessed for the GIS without an interruption to their benefits. Given the pandemic and the deferred tax filing deadline, this year, Service Canada had income information on all but approximately 214,000 of 2.2M beneficiaries (9.7%).
• With the deferral of the tax filing deadline, a temporary measure was put in place in July 2020 for all 214,000 recipients to avoid suspending benefits because of missing income information.
• June 2020 benefits are maintained and paid separately until December 2020 or until the 2019 income information becomes available, whichever is earlier.
• Proactive communications and outreach activities have been undertaken. Letters were mailed and clients are being called to remind them that their income information is missing.
• The previous 63,000 estimate of the number of receipients who could be suspended will decrease as a result of additional income information received from over 20,000 clients, and is significantly lower than previous years (105,000 in 2017; 75,000 in 2018; 73,000 in 2019.)