Increased monthly support, more money for housing and a back-to-school benefit are among the changes the province is making to the income support program starting this September.

The changes are part of the province’s poverty reduction plan.

Eligible adults will received the same monthly benefit amount, regardless of their living arrangements. That means that two adults living together will receive $561 each per month for basic necessities like food or clothing.

All eligible one-adult households will received a maximum of $522 a month starting in September, while two eligible adults living together will receive $299 each for rent.

The province is also introducing a new $100 payment for each school aged child in a household receiving income support, to be paid in August to help with school-related expenses.

Vision care benefits are also increasing – for a total of up to $100 for an eye exam, $290 for glasses, and $350 for bifocals.

Opposition parties not impressed

Opposition leader Tony Wakeham says the changes made don’t amount to a poverty reduction strategy, something the former PC government delivered more than a decade ago.

“When I think back to where we were ten years ago, we had a poverty reduction strategy that was considered one of the best in the country. And what we have seen under this Liberal government is, in the last year, our poverty stats actually went up, not down.”

He says “30 per cent of the people right now in Newfoundland and Labrador are living in food insecure households. And 40 per cent of children are living in food insecure households, so those are alarming statistics.”

The NDP’s Jim Dinn says the changes, while needed, fall short and won’t lift people out of poverty. He says on housing, the measures announced show “just how out of touch government is with the reality renters are facing,” especially those on fixed incomes.