ComCare Assessment of Household Income for Families Staying Temporarily with Extended Family

Ms Mariam Jaafar asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether the current Comcare Per Capita Household Income criteria inadvertently disadvantages vulnerable families forced by financial hardship to seek temporary shelter with extended family; and (b) whether Social Service Offices track how many ComCare applications are rejected or downgraded solely because the host family's income inflates the aggregated household Per Capita Income threshold.

Answer:

            I have provided a combined response to question *3391 filed by Member Ms Mariam Jaafar in today’s Order Paper and question *3382 also filed by the same Member for the next sitting, as they both pertain to how ComCare applications are assessed. If the response has addressed her related question, the Member may wish to withdraw her question slated for the next sitting after this session.

2.          The gross monthly per capita household income benchmark of $800 is indicative and is not a qualifying criterion. Families above the benchmark may still receive ComCare depending on their needs.

3.          ComCare assessments take into account the actual circumstances of families, including those who are temporarily staying with extended family members. Social assistance officers consider which persons living at the applicant's address should be included in the household income assessment, and which should not. They consider, among other things, whether family members living under the same roof actually share resources, as well as the nature of their family relationships. Persons living at the same address therefore need not necessarily be treated as one household for the purpose of the ComCare assessment. We do not track the number of applications where a host family is involved.

4.          At the same time, family support remains an important consideration where it is available and appropriate. Our assessments therefore balance the applicant’s circumstances and needs with the support that his or her family can reasonably provide.