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Family assistance

Eligibility Simul Aide Application procedure Assessment Basic benefit and Special benefits Allowances and adjustments Payments and payment calendar Individual development account Family assistance Rights and obligations Application for review Recovery Information and complaints Information exchange

• Dependent child - definition
• Spouse - definition
• Support payments
• School expenses
• Adjustments - «Child Assistance» and «NCBS»
• Adjustment - dependent children

For the purposes of last-resort financial assistance, a family is defined as an adult with children or two spouses with or without children. The financial assistance a family receives is used to cover the adults’ basic needs, such as housing and food. The basic needs of children under 18 are covered by the Régie des rentes du Québec’s Child Assistance and Canada Revenue Agency’s Canada Child Tax Benefit (which includes the Child Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement). However, in certain situations, the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale provides financial assistance aimed specifically at meeting certain needs of children.

Dependent child – definition

For the purposes of last-resort financial assistance, children are considered dependents when they rely on their parents for their subsistence and they:

• are under 18, single and have no dependent child(ren)
• are over 18, attend an educational institution, are neither the spouse of another person nor married and have no dependent child(ren).

Spouse – definition

For the purposes of last-resort financial assistance, the term “spouses” means:

• two persons who are joined by marriage or civil union or who cohabit in a de facto union,

or

• persons who cohabit and who are the parents of the same child,

or

• persons of the age of majority, of the opposite or the same sex, who cohabit and, at any one time, cohabited for a period of at least one year.

 

Support payments

If you apply for last-resort financial assistance benefits, child support and related benefits are subtracted from the benefit granted.

Since January 1, 2006, if you have at least one dependent child, the first $100 of your monthly child support payment will not be considered in calculating the benefit.

If your former spouse stops paying the child support to which you are entitled and if you are receiving last-resort financial assistance benefits, the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale will adjust your benefit to reflect the fact that you no longer receive child support. Once the Ministère du Revenu has recovered the child support from your former spouse, it will be paid to the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale for as long as there is any outstanding amount owed to it. You will receive the $100 exclusion as soon as the monthly outstanding amounts are received by the Department.