Only 51,000 NBers have received $300 'affordability' payments
Applications slow, but province says it isn't worried
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About 70,000 New Brunswickers have applied for the government’s $300 “affordability” payments, and about 51,000 have received them – still far short of the initial projections that up to 250,000 households could be eligible.
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And the pace of applications has dramatically slowed, government data show.
On March 14, just two weeks after the program opened, the province said it had received 33,761 applications, and distributed cheques to more than 15,000 New Brunswickers. That’s a pace of over 15,000 applications a week, and 7,500 cheques a week.
But in the almost six weeks that have followed, the average weekly pace of applications has dropped to 5,968, and the average weekly pace of cheques being sent out has dropped to 2,873.
Eligibility for the program – which began in late February and is open to households with income of $70,000 or less, provided someone in the house earned at least $3,000 in 2022 or 2023 – ends on June 30.
When he announced the program in January, Premier Blaine Higgs said it could cost up to $75 million, and that upwards of 250,000 applications were expected. A wave of short-term hires were made at Service New Brunswick to accommodate the predicted influx.
But as the eligibility halfway point looms, that hasn’t happened.
In front of a legislative committee Wednesday, Higgs defended how the benefit has been marketed.
“There’s been a tremendous effort put into the marketing program for this initiative,” Higgs said, citing an ongoing social media campaign and traditional media advertising.
Liberal finance critic René Legacy asked Higgs whether the province’s communications department recommended he announce the benefit at his state of the province speech in February.
The premier said he wasn’t given advice about whether to communicate the initiative, adding the government was working quickly behind the scenes to roll out the benefit for struggling New Brunswickers.
Higgs said he suspects more applications will come in just before the deadline.
“What we’ve seen to date is the program has been fully available and we wonder if some of it is like the income tax. How many people have applied in the last few weeks as the income tax year deadline approaches?” he said.
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But if the current pace holds, the province will only receive about 140,000 to 150,000 applications by the time the program wraps. Assuming they’re all approved, that would save the government about $30 million.
Since the details of the program were unveiled, the government has faced stinging criticisms from the opposition parties about who’s eligible, and the complexity of the application process. The government, meanwhile, has insisted that the application process is simple, and according to Finance Minister Ernie Steeves, “can be done in five or 10 minutes.”
The government has also noted that many New Brunswickers who don’t qualify have already received help via other programs.
“The New Brunswick Workers Benefit has received a total of 69,570 applications to date,” Finance and Treasury Board spokesperson Alycia Bartlett said in an email. “To date, a total of 51,076 have been approved and have now received the benefit.
“Given that the application period remains open until June 30, 2024, no adjustments have been made to the estimated numbers of applicants. Eligible New Brunswickers are encouraged to apply.
“The program is being heavily promoted through various marketing tactics, including via social media platforms, digital display ads, radio and newspaper ads, at Service New Brunswick offices, and by reaching out to relevant stakeholder groups.”
During a recent appearance before the same legislative committee, Steeves also shrugged off questions about the slow pace of applications.
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“New Brunswickers are famous for buying last minute,” he said.
“Even a Taylor Swift show might come to town, and the tickets might be sold at the last minute. That’s what happens in New Brunswick, for whatever reason, it’s an odd market that way. We do take advantage of deals and specials and tickets and the rest of it, at the last minute. So hopefully we’ll get more uptick from now until then, but it’s 300 bucks and we want New Brunswickers to have it.”
At the time, Legacy replied that while he agrees with Steeves that New Brunswickers are famous for buying last minute, “this government is also famous for rolling out programs that are ill-prepared.”
“So I think we’re seeing a lot of that, and not necessarily buyer lateness is the problem. It’s just that we weren’t ready,” he said.
– With files from Barbara Simpson and John Chilibeck
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