Clawbacks are an almost irresistible government method for penny-pinching. First, harvest good will by promoting a program that seems to provide a kind of lottery win for some lucky citizens. Then dream up a rule that effectively cancels out some or all of the benefit. A clawback.
Internationally, an enormous pending clawback undermines a lifetime of scrimping for poorer English homeowners, thanks to a change in legislation that puts them impossibly far away from qualifying for government home care assistance. The consequence, publicly admitted by the Prime Minister, is that they may be forced to sell their houses, even as wealthier folk will weather stringent new rules and hang on to their homes.
In Nova Scotia, changes to policy are in the works that are nowhere near as dramatic as the English situation. The change will, however, affect people with very low incomes who are living in public housing or receiving a rent supplement.
What exactly are sums of money paid to veterans, or to parents of children with disabilities? Are they benefits, or are they income? The answer is important because their rent is geared to Income.
Can you see the government potential for clawback here? Call a disability payment a “benefit” and it has no effect on the rent charged. But call that same payment “income” and it triggers a higher rent, which effectively claws back some of what was called a “benefit” when it was paid out.
At a time of COVID uncertainty and rising prices, Nova Scotia has decided that disability benefits paid to public housing tenants will no longer be considered “income.” Going forward, the public housing tenants who receive the disability benefit will be paying less rent.
Read more at the CBC: Veterans and children with disabilities could see fall in public housing rent
