Service Canada Form ISP–3040
In my journey, this is definitely one of the more disturbing facts I came to learn about. Below is my understanding of it in my words and then copied and pasted from the link below in their words. (Michele Fraser opinion)
It is called Involuntary Separation – it is designed for couples who are needing to live apart – for example the couple is living either in their home or in an Assisted Living Community situation. One person now requires more care and needs to go into a Personal Care Home Facility.
During the assessment process, they take the couples finances under review – not just the person who is requiring the care and they base the amount that will be paid to the PCH on both incomes.
This can get extremely pricy and the couple can be put in a very tight financial situation – so the Government has come up with a solution.
Instead of only taking the finances of the person who requires the care into consideration, they have Service Canada Form ISP-3040 which provides the couple with an Involuntary Separation to separate their incomes.
We personally think that this is atrocious – it is a wonderful thing when two people make it together throughout their life and into old age as a couple, a unit, a team and to have this be the only option available is unbelievable to me. (our Board’s opinion)
The below information was taken off the link below – copied and pasted (Apr 26/23):
Involuntary Separation
Sometimes senior married or common-law couple has to live apart from each other due to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. one transferred to nursing home). Under this circumstances, their marital or common-law status under the pension program may remain as is however their GIS/ALW amount calculation may be calculated using individual category.
A pensioner’s GIS is calculated based on their combined marital income. If a pension has a spouse who still has higher earning, it will affect the pensioner’s GIS qualification amount. For example, if John’s retired annual income in $6,000 and his spouse, Lucy, has $50,000 annual income because she is still working, then John will not be qualified for GIS because of Lucy’s income. They have a combined income of $50,000 + $6,000 which surpasses GIS upper threshold.
However, if John suddenly has to be sent to a nursing home due to poor health issue and has to live apart from Lucy (who still lives at home), John’s GIS will then be calculated based on his own income of $6,000 which is under the GIS individual category income threshold. Both John and Lucy are still considered a married couple under pension program, however, their GIS calculation will now be based on individual income rather than combined family income.
Same principle applies to spouse who are receiving the Allowance amount.
To qualify for involuntary separation status, pension or their POA must complete the ISP-3040 form (click here to download)
