N.S. government looks to compensate rent supplement recipients who were underpaid

Nova Scotia's minister responsible for housing has asked officials in his department to look at compensating people who receive rent supplements that were underpaid for the last two years.

Colton LeBlanc told reporters on Thursday that the underpayments — discovered as part of a recent audit of the program — would have been in the range of $10 to $30 per month.

While those could be considered smaller amounts, "for folks who rely on a rent supplement, it could be big," the minister said.

LeBlanc said the internal audit performed by EY was ordered to take a look at what is a relatively new program that has grown "significantly and exponentially" to support people who need help making rent.

The province now spends more than $70 million on rent supplements, compared to about $11 million when the Progressive Conservatives came to power in 2021.

"We've tripled the number of people being supported with this rent supplement program," said LeBlanc. "We know of its importance to so many Nova Scotians."

'Human error does occur'

The audit findings showed that 104 recipients in East Hants and Timberlea were underpaid during the last two years because their supplement was based on incorrect geographic information. Rent supplements are calculated based on average market rent for a given area.

Although the audit found there were also some overpayments to clients due to miscalculations, the minister and his department were unable to provide further details. 

There are 1,200 total program clients in the assessed area.

LeBlanc said that after the errors were detected, corrections were made to ensure appropriate payments beginning with recipients' respective renewal dates. He wasn't sure if people were notified that they were underpaid.

"Human error does occur, so we've made changes to the program where now this is automated to avoid these instances moving forward," he said.

The audit was made public through the province's freedom of information disclosure website, although the government did not publicize it.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters that the government should have provided more public disclosure about the audit and its findings. She noted the underpayments come at a time when many people in Nova Scotia are still struggling to maintain or find a place to live.

"The rent supplement program has been a large part of this government's answer to that and it's clear that they've been mismanaging that."