Benefits cease to be paid to a client who has NOT SUBMITTED a completed and signed SHORT STATEMENT unless the client was unable to do so.
When a client FAILS TO PROVIDE the INFORMATION required to determine his or her eligibility for assistance, whether at the time of application or while receiving assistance, the Income Security may refuse to grant the application or reduce or cease paying the benefits.
Required information includes:
- all information and supporting documents and other information required under the directives.
- additional information when an counsellor has reasonable doubt with regard to the authenticity of the information provided by the client, for instance a loan agreement, purchase invoices for a property, etc.;
- information prior to the current period to validate an amount of paid benefits.
Required information also includes information prior to the current period. As such, during assistance, the counsellor may request a client to provide information required to validate an amount of benefits paid for one or several months prior to the current period. However, if the client refuses to cooperate to verify the accuracy of the benefits paid in the past, the assistance counsellor may reduce or cease to pay the benefit if the requested information is also required to assess the eligibility of the client to assistance for the current period.
Assistance is reduced by the amount known of the included resource when the eligibility of the client is not questioned.
Furthermore, if this request of required information should result in a claim, the assistance counsellor will not be able to establish the claim on the simple fact that the client did not provide the required information, he or she will need to find proof to support his or her claim.