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PPMB is a provincial program available through the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction that provides financial assistance to applicants who have long-term barriers to employment. To be eligible for PPMB, an applicant must:

• Have been on income assistance for 12 of the last 15 months
• Have multiple severe barriers to employment
• Have a severe eligible medical condition that hinders their ability to perform or search for a job
• The barrier/s will like continue or recur for at least 2 years

For the medical condition to be considered an eligible medical condition, it must be shown that either the applicant has had the condition for at least 1 year, or, the condition is likely to continue or reoccur frequently for at least 2 years.

Recipients on PPMB are exempt from searching for work. However, they are still encouraged to develop their independence with earnings exemptions provided by the Ministry. 

For more information on PPMB, click here.

To qualify for PPMB you must have:

• Received income assistance for at least 12 of the past 15 months
• A doctor confirm that you have a medical condition that stops you from looking for, accepting or continuing your work
• A doctor confirm that you have a medical condition that has lasted for at least 1 year and is likely to continue or reoccur for at least 2 more years

The Ministry (MSDPR) will decide if you qualify for PPMB based on:

• Information provided by your doctor in your PPMB medical report
• PPMB Employability Screen

Note: Addictions alone are excluded from being considered a medical condition that would make an applicant qualified for PPMB.

Once you are approved for PPMB, how much you will receive depends on your family situation (i.e. whether you are single, married, common law or have children), your age, or whether you’re receiving income from another source. The PPMB benefit includes a portion of money for shelter and a portion of money for support. In order to receive the shelter portion, you must prove that you have shelter costs.

For example: If you are a single person between the ages of 19-64, the benefit rate would be $807.92 ($375 shelter portion + $432.92 support portion).

The table below shows the maximum benefit you might be eligible for based on your family unit.

The PPMB status is a temporary status given to eligible applicants. A person with PPMB will be reassessed for barriers at least every two years.

A person with the PPMB status is eligible to receive:

• An increase in financial support (approximately $50 more).
• A higher earning exemption (up to $700 per month).
• You will not be expected to look for work.
• You may be eligible for certain health supplements.

If you are able, you can work and earn up to $700 a month as a single person when you are on PPMB without it affecting your benefit. This is referred to as Earning Exemptions and they are based on your family size. The table below shows the earning exemptions for PPMB dependent on your family size.

Assets are considered assets if they can be converted to cash. That is, if the item has monetary value, then it is considered an asset. Assets can include cash, savings, stocks, bonds, RRSPs and more. When applying or on income assistance, you are allowed to have certain “assets” that do not affect your assistance, as long as these assets are within your allowable asset limits. If the value of these assets exceed your allowable limits, then income assistance applicants are required to use their assets for personal independence.

The Ministry places a maximum value amount of assets you can have when applying or while on PPMB. For example, a single person with the PPMB status, is allowed to have up to $2,000 in assets. If the dollar amount exceeds $2,000, the person may not be eligible for benefits.

The table below shows the asset level one is allowed to have depending on their family unit.

Some assets are considered exempt for determining eligibility for Income Assistance. Below you will find some of the most commonly asked about exempt assets.

• Clothing and necessary household equipment
• A vehicle valued up to $10,000
• A family unit’s place of residence (*you must live in the home for it to be exempt).
• Tax refund
• Child tax credit
• Universal Child Care Benefit
• BC Early Childhood Tax Benefit
• Goods and services tax credit; harmonized sales tax credit; a sales tax credit the Income Tax Act (Canada)
• The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
• The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Class Action Settlement
• Abuse at Woodlands School
• Money paid or payable from a fund from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry
• Funds held in a registered education savings plan (RESP) a dependent child
• Money received from the sale of, the family unit’s previous place of residence if the money is either:
  • Applied to the amount owing on the family unit’s current place of residence
  • Used to pay rent for the family unit’s current place of residence
• And more…

For a full list of exempt assets click here

If you meet specific criteria, crisis supplements may be provided. However, most will require pre-approval from the Ministry. Different types of crisis supplements have different guidelines. The Ministry can issue up to the maximum amount of crisis supplement in accordance to what is set in legislation if you are an income assistance or hardship recipient and you meet the eligibility criteria.

Regardless of the type of crisis supplement, the eligibility requirements are the same:

• It is an unexpected expense or the item is needed unexpectedly,
• The absence of this would result in danger to physical health or risk of child apprehension, and
• There is no other available resource to meet the need.

The 3 types of crisis supplements that the Ministry can issue are for food, shelter and clothing.

Crisis Supplement for Shelter

To verify the situation is a crisis, you may be required to produce an eviction notice before the Ministry would consider it a “crisis”. This means, the Ministry may not consider it a crisis if a person realizes they may not be able to pay their rent by the end of the month.

If the crisis supplement were insufficient to resolve the crisis, you would have to show the Ministry how you can come up with the remainder of the money to resolve the outstanding amount owing before issuing the crisis supplement. For example: the eviction notice cites the amount owing as $600; the couple’s entitlement is $570 so they would have to show how they
would come up with the additional $30.

Crisis Supplement for Clothing

The Ministry has the legislative authority to issue a crisis supplement for clothing up to a
maximum of $100 per person, and up to a maximum of $400 annually. This means for a family unit with more than 4 people, $400 is the maximum amount of clothing crisis supplement that can be issued, regardless of whether there are 5, or 6, or 7, etc. members in the family
unit.

Diet supplements are there to assist you to meet the costs associated with unusually expensive diets as a result of a medical condition or need. The Ministry approval of a diet supplement
is for the period the condition is expected to last up to a maximum of 12 months for acute (short-term) conditions and 24 months for chronic (ongoing, recurring, long-term) conditions. A person having separate conditions, only the higher diet allowance amount is usually paid.

For more information, click here.

To apply for PPMB, call 1-866-866-0800 or go into your local Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (MSDPR) office to schedule an appointment for the Ministry worker to assist with the application.

Employability Screen – The ministry worker will ask you questions about your background and your barriers to employment such as your work history, level of education and English language skills.  The worker will also ask you what steps you have taken to overcome your barriers to employment. The answers to the questions and scores on the employability screen will determine eligibility for PPMB.

Medical Report – After the employability screen, the ministry worker will also give you or mail you a medical report that needs to be completed by your doctor.  To be eligible for PPMB, your doctor must explain why your medical condition prevents you from working and that your condition has lasted for at least one year and will continue for two years. You will also be required to provide information on the treatments you have taken in attempts of improving your condition. If you have additional tests or reports that show how severe your medical condition is, they should also be included with the medical report.

The Employability Screen is a form used by the Ministry to determine whether a person meets the criteria PPMB. Specifically, the employability screen assesses what types of barriers a person is facing to employment and to what extent. It identifies things such as past dependency on assistance, recent work history, education level, and English proficiency. Points are scored based on a person’s answers and the overall point score is considered an indication of that person’s employment readiness. If the applicant scores less than 15 points on the Employability Screen, then his/her medical restrictions to work must be more severe than if you score 15 points or greater.

Employability Scores:

Employability screen scores are used to determine how severe your medical condition is. If you score:

• 15 or more on the screen, you must have barriers that “seriously impede” your ability to look for work, accept work or continue work.
• Less than 15 on the screen, you must have a medical condition that “precludes” or completely prevents you from looking for, accepting and continuing work