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Adam Huras
Telegraph-Journal

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MONCTON - The New Brunswick government is rewriting its eligibility rules for social assistance following the highly-publicized plight of a Moncton man who earned $1.70 too much to qualify for help.

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Adam Huras/Telegraph-Journal

Tory critic for Persons with Disabilities Jack Carr, left, Opposition leader David Alward and Dieppe-Memramcook MLA Cy LeBlanc, right, speak with Moncton resident Mike Kennedy on Thursday.

Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock said Thursday his department will eliminate all absolute income cutoffs for those looking for financial help from his department.

He made the pledge just hours after Moncton resident Mike Kennedy met with Opposition Leader David Alward and two other Tory MLAs to complain about his denial of disability assistance.

"It's a terrible rule and soon as we can get it rewritten we will change it," Lamrock said Thursday.

Kennedy found out he did not qualify for the $1,000 provincial supplement because his federal disability pension was too high.

His federal disability pension of $619.70 per month pushed him over the limit by a mere $1.70 to be eligible for the provincial aid.

Earlier this month after a speech in Saint John, Lamrock used Kennedy's situation as an example of how the system is failing New Brunswick's most vulnerable.

But just 10 days after Lamrock's words, Kennedy received a letter saying his appeal had been denied.

"I think it shows a lot of incompetence on Minister Lamrock's part to acknowledge it but then to not do anything about it," Kennedy said. "It is making the poor even poorer."

Lamrock defended himself by saying he was working on the file all along.

"The law as drafted says that even if people are a penny over the threshold, the minister is not allowed to administer a cheque," he said.

"I asked staff if I could ignore it, but it turns out there is a law right on the books that says you're only authorized by law to issue a cheque if they are under the income threshold.

"So now we will rewrite the law."

The law was passed in 2000 by the Tory government, Lamrock said.

Alward has vowed that he would grant poor people greater access to social assistance if he wins the next election.

He said he would also increase income limits for people on social assistance and ensure that people who leave the assistance program for a job won't lose drug and health coverage.

Alward pledged Thursday to work with the government on the file to change the measures.

Lamrock said it should be a relatively easy fix.

"I want them designed so that you simply deduct however much they are over from the benefit," Lamrock said.

After legislation is rewritten and passed Kennedy would receive the $1,000 less $1.70 per month - a disability pension of $979.60 instead of nothing.

Lamrock estimated drafting new legislation will take a few weeks to a few months.

"I wish I could just cut the cheques right now," he said. "But we have to go through the legislation drafting process first."