THE Federal NDP said on Monday that the Liberal government finally announced that seniors cut off from their Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) would receive a one-time payment in April with emergency funds available to those in dire financial circumstances as early as March.

For almost six months, the NDP said it has been calling on the government to fix their mistake that cost some of the country’s poorest seniors the GIS help they count on to pay for food, rent and medicine.

“Seniors can finally breathe a sigh of relief after going through a horrible, unnecessary ordeal,” said NDP critic for seniors Rachel Blaney. “For months, I have been hearing the most heartbreaking stories from vulnerable seniors who felt abandoned by this government. The pandemic has just been devastating for our country’s seniors and, instead of getting extra support, they had the GIS help cut from them for accessing the pandemic aid they desperately needed. New Democrats spoke out against this injustice from the beginning and I’m so happy to see that the government is finally taking action to fix their mistake.”

The NDP noted that the federal government had announced that they would provide an emergency payment to seniors cut off the GIS during the fiscal update last fall, but many Canadians were shocked and dismayed to learn the financial help wouldn’t be available until May. New Democrats like Blaney and the NDP finance critic, Daniel Blaikie, advocated for more urgent help for more than 183,000 seniors that were left behind by the government’s claw back.

“It’s been a long wait for many seniors who have been hungry, missed medication or faced eviction,” said Blaikie. “It’s about time the government is showing a sense of urgency to this problem of their own making. I hope the next time they receive a warning that their policies will cause serious hardship to Canada’s seniors that they act immediately, without months of political pressure to convince them. I do know that Canadians will always be able to count on New Democrats to fight for them when they need a champion.”