A family is made up of:
- an ADULT and a dependent CHILD;
- SPOUSES with a dependent CHILD or a child who is dependent on one of the spouses;
- SPOUSES, of different sexes or the same sex, without any dependent children.
- An adult in a family cannot receive aid individually.
Note: An adult client of the Income Security Program with a spouse who is eligible for the 66/72 benefit is not considered to form a family with that spouse for the purposes of applying the program regulations.
The composition of the family is documented objectively by taking the facts into account and not intentions. Children from one of the spouses are considered to be part of the family composition formed by their father or mother with the other spouse who is not their parent. The fact that these children live within a family creates a relation of dependency.
We must therefore see whether or not, according to the facts, this relationship of dependency exists. A simple affirmation from a spouse stating that he or she does not provide for a child is not enough to establish that this relationship does not exist. In cases where this relationship is ruptured, the situation must be clearly established, for example, if the child lives separately from the family and has been taken in by another person or by the State.
The needs and resources of all family members, spouses and dependent children are considered in the evaluation of the aid that will be provided.
A person ceases to be part of a family if he or she leaves the family permanently and in the cases provided for in the Framework Policy, starting the 3rd MONTH after:
- an adult is HOUSED at a home care or long-term care centre or hospital providing such care;
- an adult is INCARCERATED in a penitentiary, a detention facility or a prison or is required to stay in a facility for social reinsertion purposes;
- an adult or a dependent child is DECEASED;
- an adult is staying in a centre offering addiction treatment services.
A person CEASES TO BE PART of a FAMILY starting the month he or she is placed in a FOSTER HOME or an intermediary resource. This is considered to be a de facto separation and each adult may receive aid as a single individual. If there is only one adult in the file (single-parent family), the counsellor must check if the children are under the custody of a child and youth protection centre (CYPC) or another person.
In the event that the other member of the couple is taken under the responsibility of the same family-type resource or the same intermediary resource, there is no reason to consider that there has been a resumption of cohabitation based on the sole fact that they reside at the same address. Treatment is equatable to the treatment accorded to a housed couple. For the purposes of the establishment of their eligibility for aid, each adult is considered to be a single person.
Aid is reduced the 4th month following an incarceration, a placement, a stay at a centre offering addiction treatment services or a death. This three-month period is granted to give the family time to adjust economically following the absence or disappearance of one of its members. This timeframe applies even if the family was not receiving aid at the time of a conviction, placement or death.
The deadline applies in the case of a single-parent family wherein the only adult is detained, lives in a housing placement or is deceased, even if there no longer exists, by definition, a family whose needs may be subject to calculation. The family is considered to be intact for the three months following the detention, housing placement or death, EXCEPT if the child (or children) becomes the financial responsibility of a child and youth protection centre (CYPC), social services or the other parent.
When an adult passes away before three months have passed since his or her placement admission, the timeframe provided in the case of a home placement may not exceed the three months following the placement admission in order for the person to be no longer considered as being housed with the family.