P.E.I.'s caregiver benefit needs more money and expanded eligibility, Opposition says

Most of the Islanders who applied for a new provincial program aimed at keeping them in their homes and out of long-term care were considered to be ineligible for the coverage, officials told MLAs on Wednesday.

The politicians also learned that the P.E.I. government has already spent one-fifth of the $5.2 million budgeted for the At Home Caregiver Benefit since it rolled out on July 15.

Just 37 per cent of people who applied for the benefit were eligible to receive it, officials with Health P.E.I. and the province told a legislative standing committee on Wednesday.

Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly said the eligibility requirements are too strict.

"If we want to keep people at home, we have to make sure we improve... the eligibility criteria, the province has to put more money into this, and we have to have a plan about where we're going and how we're going to get there," McNeilly said.

"I didn't see it today."

The goal of the At Home Caregiver Benefit is to help people who are aging stay in their own homes as long as possible, as well as take pressure off the Island's long-term care facilities and their lengthy waitlists.

Launched on July 15, the program will pay $250 to $1,500 a month depending on the care recipient's household income. The money goes to people receiving care, who will then use it to pay their primary caregivers.

The recipient must be age 65 or older and a resident of P.E.I. holding a valid health card. People under 65may also be considered depending on their medical condition.

Care recipients must have significant needs and will be at high likelihood of requiring long-term care admission, but it is not necessary for them to be on the long-term care waitlist to receive the benefit.

Officials told the standing committee that people who need palliative care, among other conditions, do not meet the program's criteria.

"We're very early days, right? We had to start somewhere," said Christina Phillips, P.E.I.'s director of seniors' health.

"This is the type of thing that we hear feedback [on], and that helps us with future phases."

The government officials couldn't say when or whether the eligibility criteria would be expanded. They also said it was too early to tell whether the program's budget would need to be increased, or by how much.

'This isn't what was promised'

As of 2022, there were 36,664 Island residents who were 65 years of age or older, representing 20.3 per cent of the P.E.I. population.

The province has been dealing with bottlenecks in its long-term care and hospital systems, as people otherwise eligible to be discharged from a hospital room had to wait there for a spot to open up in a care home. That occupies a hospital bed that could otherwise go to a patient in need of one.

The government cut a $25-million deal with privately run long-term care homes to add over 50 new beds to that system to try to ease the crunch.

For the At Home Caregiver Benefit to help alleviate the strain on the system, McNeilly said, the province needs to invest more money into it and expand the eligibility.

"This isn't what was promised," he said. "I've got constituents that didn't qualify for this program, and it's a hard time for them to be rejected from a program like this when they need it the most."