To provide general rules and considerations applying to all Income Support benefits.

POLICY

Arrears and Recovery

Benefits are not issued to pay off debts, loans or arrears. Benefits are not issued on a repayment basis, except when authorized in policy.

Awaiting Appeal

Benefits that have been refused are not issued pending appeal.

No benefits are issued so that a client can attend an appeal hearing.

Authority for Issuing Benefits

Authority for issuing benefits resides with the Career and Employment Consultant (CEC) or the Support and Financial Services Coordinator (SFSC) or equivalent unless otherwise stated.

Debt

A debt does not occur:

• For a benefit when the client was eligible for the benefit on the first of the month.
• When a Core Benefit is used for a purpose other than the one for which it was issued if the client was eligible to receive the benefit.

Eligibility

An allowance may be issued to a household unit if all conditions are met, as outlined in the specific section, and all other resources have been explored.

Least Cost Alternative

Unless otherwise specified in policy, the worker issues benefits by the most reasonable and economical means.

Mismanaged Benefits

Benefits are not reissued if mismanaged (i.e., used for a purpose other than intended).

Benefits may only be reissued if a cheque or voucher (not cash) was lost, stolen, or never received, and was not cashed by the client.

Rounding Benefits

See Rounding Benefits policy.

Retroactivity

Workers can issue underpayment benefits retroactively for all periods of assistance in which the underpayment occurred.  Retroactive payments cannot predate the date the client was initially deemed eligible for income support.

Standard Procedure for Issuing Benefits, and Entering Notes and Tasks 

Unless otherwise stated in policy the standard procedure for issuing benefits and documenting is, the worker:

1. Reviews the Scratch Pad (if applicable).
2. If eligible, issues the benefit.

Records the circumstances into the appropriate Notes section in Mobius. 

• Notes that are related to Plan Items to assist the client should be entered into the "Plan Item" Notes;
• Notes related to the Assessment should be in the "Assessment" Notes;
• Notes that are directly related to the Service Plan should be entered into "Service Plan" Notes;
• All other Notes (i.e., running record) should be entered into the Integrated Case Home Page.

Documentation in Mobius is based on the recognition that the information belongs to the client.  Therefore, notes should only contain information necessary to provide the service and only to the detail required by policy.

By default all Mobius Notes have level 1 sensitivity, meaning they may be viewed by anyone who has access to the client's file.  If it is necessary to record confidential information, staff must ensure the proper sensitivity restriction is assigned.

Creates the Task in the appropriate Task Section in Mobius.

To allow others to view and work on Tasks assigned to a client, Tasks can be linked to a clients Home Page so they are in one centralized location in Mobius. When creating a new Task from the Integrated Case Home or Service Plan, select the clients name as a Case Participant under the section labeled Concerning.  This will link the Task to the clients Home Page in the Task section on the Left Navigation Menu.

Substantiation and Verification

Unless otherwise stated, verification of client circumstances requires staff to view the applicable documents and record this activity in Mobius, including any relevant details that might not be otherwise captured in any of the systems.

Documents provided by the client that are not listed in the Client File checklist are to be returned to the client.