The Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale required a copy of a citizen’s will without a valid reason

The complaint

A citizen contested the requirement that she provide a copy of her will in order to assess her eligibility for social assistance.

After receiving the last of her employment insurance sickness benefits, the citizen went to a local employment centre in order to apply for social assistance. Various extra steps were required of the citizen since certain documents were missing while other documents that were provided were not in order (birth certificate, lease, copy of life insurance policy and will). The citizen was willing to transmit all the documents requested by the employee at the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale. She was not able, however, to provide a copy of her will within the required deadline (less than three weeks) and found this requirement to be excessive.

The investigation

• Section 30 of the Individual and Family Assistance Act states that: A person wishing to obtain financial assistance must apply to the Minister according to the procedure the Minister prescribes and provide the Minister with any document or information necessary to ascertain the person's eligibility or the eligibility of the person's family, and to determine the amount of the assistance to be granted. An application for last resort financial assistance, however, must be submitted according to the procedure prescribed by regulation.
• The request for a copy of the will was not useful in determining the amount of assistance to be granted. Thus, the employee should not have required this document.
• A will can be useful for verifying marital status. The Department did not, however, presume that the citizen was married and thus the document should not have been required.
• It was the employee at the counter, rather than the socioeconomic assistance officer responsible for the citizen’s file, who requested a copy of the will.

The Québec Ombudsman’s conclusions

Despite the employee’s requirement, the Department decided in the citizen’s favour. However, in order to ensure that this situation does not repeat itself, the Ombudsman recommended that the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale inform its personnel about the importance of requesting only the documents needed to analyze citizen files.

The Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale agreed to act on the Ombudsman’s recommendation.