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Living Arrangements


Overview: October 1, 2012

Effective: October 01, 2012

For the purpose of determining eligibility for income assistance, disability assistance, or hardship assistance, an applicant’s or recipient’s living arrangements must be determined.

The ministry must establish whether other persons residing with the applicant or recipient fit within the definition of family unit. This includes determining whether to provide additional shelter assistance when parents have a shared custody court order or shared parenting agreement filed in court showing that they have a child who is not listed as a dependent child on their file, but who resides with them for no less than 40 per cent of each month.

When establishing whether other persons residing with the applicant or recipient fit within the definition of family unit, an assessment for a marriage-like dependency relationship may be necessary in order to determine the applicant’s or recipient’s living arrangements.

The ministry intends to ensure that room mates are not treated as couples. For the purpose of assessing for a marriage-like relationship the ministry will request information and only make a determination when evidence supports the decision.

As part of determining a family unit’s composition, the ministry takes into account situations where a parent, teenage parent and teenage parent’s child live together as a three generation family.