008. Myth-Busting AISH: Is It Really “Easy to Get”?

Episode Summary:

In this episode, Gordon and Annie tackle one of the most persistent and most harmful myths about the Alberta Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program:

“AISH is easy to get.”

Spoiler: It’s not.

This conversation breaks down the reality of the AISH eligibility process, the misconceptions driving public commentary, and the lived experience of families who navigate the system every day. With major changes coming in 2026 through the proposed ADAP program, understanding the foundations of AISH, what it requires, why people struggle, and how the process really works, is more important than ever.

Why this matters:

• Misinformation hurts disabled Albertans.
• Families need to know the truth so they can advocate effectively.
• AISH is already difficult and changes may make it even harder.
• Public narrative shapes legislation.
• Understanding the real barriers helps reduce stigma and increase empathy.

Key Takeaways:

1. AISH is not easy to get — or to keep.

Despite public claims, AISH has strict medical, financial, and eligibility requirements. Many applicants are denied, and current recipients undergo ongoing reviews.

2. The medical criteria are rigorous and often misunderstood.

A disability must be severe, permanent, and must prevent the ability to earn a livelihood. Even small wording choices on medical forms can result in rejection.

3. Doctors aren’t always equipped to complete the form accurately.

Psychologists can't submit the medical portion, even if they know the client best. Many family doctors don’t know the applicant well enough, creating gaps in documentation.

4. Family support can unintentionally mask the severity of a disability.

Applicants often appear more capable than they are because their family provides ongoing structure, prompting, and daily support making it essential to describe functioning without that help.

5. AISH’s financial rules are strict and complex.

An applicant must:

• Have less than $100,000 in non-exempt assets
• Meet income limits
• Be 18–65
• Be an Alberta resident
• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
   Any change in income, assets, or living situation must be reported.

Memorable Lines:

“AISH isn’t easy to get. It’s hard to get on, and it’s hard to stay on.”

“People appear more capable because their families work tirelessly behind the scenes.”

“If AISH were truly easy, we wouldn’t see the number of rejections and clawbacks that we do.”

Resources & Links:

AISH Program Overview (Government of Alberta)

https://www.alberta.ca/aish

AISH Policy Manual

https://www.alberta.ca/aish-policy-manual

AISH Application Forms

https://www.alberta.ca/aish-how-to-apply

Transcript

Welcome to We Advocate, the podcast where we dig deep into Alberta's disability

programs and challenge the myths that surround them. My name is Gordon. I'm a lawyer

with Fanderleek Law and also a disability advocate and joined, as by my partner in

crime and in life, Annie. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Yeah. Today we're talking

about one of the biggest misconceptions from the Alberta Assured Income for the

Severeity Handic Program, or H, that it's easy to get. And I hear that a lot.

Yeah. You know, we were talking about this segment, right? And if you've Listen to

our other programs. Thank you for, you know, joining in and listening to some of

the earlier episodes we had. But it almost seems like there's this conception that,

and we've seen that in our, in our conversations with people, that Aish is easy to

get to, or somebody's just being lazy and they're on Aish and that somehow the

system is broken or wrong. So I guess we're wanted to have this session to sort of

clear up the rules and talk specifically about some of the criteria, because I think

if you dig into it, you begin to see that, you know, ACH is not easy to get,

right? You know, it can be a difficult process, oftentimes may involve some appeals

to get a positive outcome. But if the perception is that we need something like the

ADAP, because the H program is flawed or problematic, and it's too easy to get.

I guess we're here to say, let's dispel that myth. And we wanted to get into today

some of the particulars with regard to some of the eligibility requirements.

For the current program, acknowledging,

we'll wait for what it becomes, what the new program is when we get the legislation

and the rules with regard to the ADAP program.

And certainly if you're a family member that has taken somebody through it, or if

you've been through it yourself, I don't think you would conclude it's an easy

process at all. No, and we've heard, especially when AEDEP was introduced,

we were hearing politicians and commentators talking about that age costs too much or

that people are abusing the system. And I work in this every day, and that is not

a true statement. The numbers tell a different story.

the funding. Have you seen that there's been delays or it's taking a longer bit of

time to get approvals on age applications? Yes, I would say that normally it was

about a four -month process. I'm finding it's a little bit longer right now. And

what happens is when the application is made, sometimes it isn't looked at for quite

a while. And then more at the four months, they're sort of three, four months,

they're telling you, well, you need this extra or you need something additional,

which is making it take a little bit longer, which is a problem if they don't have

any income coming in at the time. Yeah. So it really does emphasize the need to do

the planning ahead of time, particularly for somebody who's coming up to age 18,

right, that you don't, you've got to start the process early enough so that those

entitlements are in place when they turn 18, or if you're thinking, I might be

entitled to Aish, maybe getting some help on that or getting an answer to the

question or trying to submit an application is good because every month that goes

by, you otherwise lose entitlement, right? It's not like they pay you back from the

date you submitted the application. It's always, it's always from the time of

approval going forward, you would be entitled to the monthly benefit on that.

Correct. And you can do that.

six months ahead. So again, doing the six months ahead and having everything planned

and everything that you need ready to go at that six months is very important. And

it is a bit a rigorous process to be able to establish, improve your, the

disability. So it's very invasive. You've got to provide lots of information with

regard to that. But there is that element of a bit of the stigma, right, associated

with the process. You know, I think people going through it, it's not always a

comfortable process. People are second guessing and questioning. So certainly some

advocacy needed through the process because there are barriers. It's, it's, and in

this session, we want to get into some of the details with, with regard to that.

And in particular, let's move and talk about the medical test.

Because as the name suggests,

it has to be severe and permanent.

You know, the name itself, it's for the severely handicapped. So maybe let's jump

into that and talk a little bit about the process that you have to go through

because there's a medical component to it, right, Annie? That You can't just say,

well, I'm struggling. I mean, you need the medical evidence of a doctor or other

qualified medical practitioner to be able to complete the application to provide that

medical evidence and oftentimes with other reports there as well. Yeah. So the

problem is, do you have a doctor, first of all, that actually knows you well enough

to actually be able to answer some of the questions on the on the medical form

sometimes that's a barrier from the very start where they say well my child's very

anxious and hasn't seen a doctor in in an amount of time and and so maybe does

the doctor actually know them well if they're doing it after 18 lots of times a

pediatrician will know them better but then the pediatrician is no longer the doctor

as as they're being transitioned out. And so sometimes that's a problem. So you want

to have somebody who knows you well enough to answer these clearly.

An interesting thing, too, is that a psychologist, so sometimes a psychologist will

have done an assessment, quite a thorough assessment, but they are not at this time

allowed to be the ones who actually are filling in the age medical. it has to be

a doctor and sometimes a psychologist who's just done a thorough

psychoeducational assessment actually knows your child very well and could answer the

questions maybe more easily than a doctor but they are not allowed at this time to

do that well and they also have to give a prognosis for the future so the reality

is there's a severity test right it has to be a you know,

a medical condition that is such that you cannot work or support yourself. But the

other aspect, I guess with regard to the test that we want to talk about is it

has to be permanent. It can't be, well, it could easily be solved with some sort

of treatment or maybe in three months you won't have this treatment, right? They're

looking for, this is a long -term test. it's meant to exclude a short -term

circumstance. Yes, and that there isn't something, that could be anything,

a treatment of some kind, medication of some kind that could be tried.

It wouldn't take maybe the disability away, but that if there was any improvement at

all, Aish says that those things need to be done. So again, people need to sort of

prepare to sort of make sure that they're trying all avenues so that when they are

actually doing the application, they've shown.

I've seen many times people with chronic pain,

mental health especially, neurological conditions, anything where they'll say, well,

let's wait and see. Why don't you try this first? Or when lots of times a doctor

has already said there's really nothing else that we can do. But if there's any

wording at all on the doctor's form that says, you know, that this treatment may

improve it even a little bit or may give some, yeah,

something to assist the person. If that says anything like that in the medical form,

they will actually be turned down. So it's important that the doctor sort of

understands and that when they're saying that they make it clear that that's not

necessarily going to change the ability to work, but that it actually may maybe take

the pain away a little bit or may cause less anxiety, but it's important that the

doctor says something about the ability to earn a living. The other interesting thing

about these application processes, and I think this is where the advocacy comes in

is, in many cases, in a family context,

a person may be doing much better because of the supports that they're receiving.

You know, whether it's a sibling or a parent or somebody else, a grandparent helping

a grandchild, that they're functioning and seemingly they're doing okay because of the

supports, and that almost masks the true manifestation of the disability.

So that's, I think, where the advocacy piece comes in is to almost explain the

situation, you know, explain what is going on absent the supports, right? You know,

I know we've said in other contexts that you almost do better in Aish if you're,

if you're struggling and your family was not doing a great job to support because,

you know, then it's more obvious that, well, the person is struggling and needs help

versus they seem to be doing okay. You know, we've seen many stories of that. So

that's part of that, I guess, advocacy piece is telling the, you know, the story

correctly of what is the nature and extent of that disability? Because it's not

always obvious, especially on disabilities that are less obvious or invisible,

sometimes I refer to, you know, somebody looks, doesn't look disabled. We often get

into that, that, that, you know, if somebody's, you know, has a clearly evident

disability, there's a certain approach. But if it's not as evident,

you know, something like schizophrenia, then, you know, you can't tell from the

person. So really, that storytelling, explaining it, having the proper medical reports

becomes really important. I don't know. That seemed like a long comment,

but maybe respond to that a little bit. I think especially with mental health, where

you see that there's times when people are doing better than others. It could be

seasonal. It could be. And so sometimes ACE will look at that as,

well, look, now you're able to do that. But sometimes it's because, sadly enough,

it's because they're not working and they're actually able to have a very scripted,

this is what my day is going to look like, is why actually they're doing well.

When you throw something else in, all of a sudden, they aren't doing as well. And

so the complexity of the disability is what my concern is, is that they're not

looking at really the full picture. If you're looking at a snapshot in this day,

what does that person look like?

Doesn't necessarily determine what will they do in a job setting and with changes

that are happening and the change of their schedule and all of that. And so I

often say to families, you know, you have to present the person as you're not the

hopeful parent, but actually as a realistic parent,

because oftentimes we are helping them so much that, like you said, they appear more

capable than what they are. And so a much better and fairer analysis is to say,

if you were not doing these things to assist, what would they be able to do? And

that's what your application needs to look like because that's the true picture of

the person because we're not always going to be there to be able to do the

prompting. And so that's a more realistic picture. Yeah, so a couple of points

there. One is we need to help explain the true nature and extent of the disability

in the context of its permanent and also identify how are they functioning with the

supports, that if you took those supports away, then it would be a very different

manifestation of the disability. Let's turn maybe in this next segment to talk a

little bit about some of the financial requirements, age requirements, and residency.

This gets into some of the details of the application. We want our listeners to be

aware that there are rules there. And you've got to be familiar with it. It doesn't

include everybody. There are some restrictions coming

that is owned by that person as well. Right. Those are exempt and don't count

towards the $100 ,000 asset test. One of the things I want to make people aware of

is that it's applicable between ages 18 and 65. So if you're below the age of 18,

you're not eligible, but as we talked about before, you can do some applications

beforehand so that it's in place at age 18. And when you turn 65, you become

eligible for the federal programs like CPP and OAS and there's a whole disability

side to the federal program, then you're no longer as part of the Alberta program.

So this is provincial. It's from the government of Alberta and it's for adult

services, right? It doesn't account for if you're below the age of 18, you are a

minor, you are a child, you're not applicable. You have to live in Alberta and be

a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. You can't be resident in a mental health

facility. And as you say, there are other criteria both for income and assets.

You know, there's an age policy manual and some information available on the Alberta

.ca website in terms of some of the specifics. This number does change from time to

time, and we potentially may have some new rules. We'll see what the new rules are

under the introduction of the ADAP program. So just be aware they're there.

That's part of the application process. You have to disclose that information because

they're going to be looking at that. You also cannot qualify for an OAS pension.

So If you were able to receive that early, that may disqualify you from that.

So, for example, if somebody has a significant disability, would otherwise not be

able to work if they have amassed enough assets that get the non -exempt amount to

be greater than 100 ,000, they wouldn't be eligible for age. So it's not applicable

to everybody, right? If somebody, you know, age 55, has a stroke, but they've been

able to save some money in the

meet the rules, you don't get the benefit. You have to fit within those criteria.

Yeah. So one of the ones that I, one of the other things that you're allowed to

have is a trust. So again, as anybody leaving any money, it's important that they

are aware of what they're allowed to do as far as setting up a trust for that

person. Because again, if someone left something and then move them above the 100,

then they would be taken off as well until they got into the

to an Alberta as an adult interdependent partner or people who are married,

either one or both being on Aish. How does Aish look at that? Yeah, so they will,

as soon as someone's living with someone else, they'll look at them as a couple,

and therefore, it's very important that they let Aish know, because otherwise Aish

will turn around and claw money back if they find out after the fact. So,

again, what would have been signed at the very beginning was any change of your

situation.

you know, decide to live with someone, not really thinking that through. And then

I've seen people taken off of Aish right away, even though it's maybe an early on

relationship. And then only when they're maybe no longer together is when the person

can get back. So sometimes people aren't thinking of that ahead. And I've certainly,

we've been involved in some cases, right, where they've come back and asked for

pretty enormous amounts of money because they're going back many years, going, well,

you had a partner and that partner made too much money or owned too much.

Therefore, that made you ineligible. You owe us all this money back. So it is

something they definitely look at and can be very stressful if you're being accused

of being contrary to the rules. The other part, too,

is we had said a house. You can have a house, but you have to live in the house.

And so sometimes I've seen issues where, you know, initially the person,

in the relationship, but also important for people to think if someone's leaving

property,

thinking that they're doing the right thing. So it's important to know all the rules

as far as that, to not then create a situation where someone's going to be taken

off. Well, I think certainly we see many situations where people really do need the

supports. They're struggling. And it turns out they get rejected, they get denied to

be part of the program. And maybe that's,

other people don't see that as much, but certainly in our practice, it's not that,

well, every single application that goes in automatically gets approved. And certainly

everybody who's on Aish doesn't stay on Aish. Sometimes they get taken off of Aish

because of those change in circumstances. I think that just supports the argument

that it's not an easy program. I mean, it's hard to get on. I guess if we're, if,

if, if we're summarizing, it's hard to get on and it's hard to stay on is what we

see on a day -to -day basis in terms of what we're looking at. So the perception

that it's kind of easy money and it's easy to get on and somebody's on easy

street, I think is a misperception with, with regard to that.

And then we even get into, well, in terms of the money they're making, it's not

like anybody's sort of the, well, you're getting rich off of this,

or like it's subsistence living. It's, you're below the poverty line.

I don't know, speak to that a little bit. That perception of people are sort of

high off the hog in the program. Nobody that I'm working with that I've seen that

that's the case, right? because if someone did have more, then they would be taken

off at that point. But the $100 ,000 isn't going to maintain someone for their

lifetime. So it's a low limit to start with.

So I think people oftentimes have a hard time sort of living on what they have and

definitely are not

accumulating great wealth because of our age, that's for sure. Yeah, and oftentimes

it's dependent on families for support, but there's many people who just simply don't

have the family, right? Then they're trying to manage on just, you know,

what they have and all the money they have. Typically what we see is it's going

for basic necessities of life. I mean, pain for rent, pain for, you know,

the groceries and the other necessities you need a bus pass and you'd be able to

get back and forth to work and if you're able to work a little bit on that.

So in that sense, I think you put this in the context of it's difficult to live

off of the amount that is on Aish. It's a difficult process to get on and it's a

difficult process to stay on. And there's many, many rules and many opportunities. I,

you know, I guess if you don't manage it properly to lose those benefits, right?

It's not, I guess,

the theme of today is, it's not an easy program in that, in that regard.

No, and I think now with, with the introduction of the possibility of ADAP happening

in July then, it, it ties very much to, to their ability.

That's a very frustrating thing because if people could work, they would. And it

sort of is pointing out very clearly what their struggles are.

And so, yeah, it's just not an easy, it's just not an easy thing to get.

And we want to make, I mean, the point of the program is it's providing those

supports because as a province, we said, you know, and similar to other provinces in

our federation, that we need these supports. People are deserving for basic rights

and dignity to have that level of supports. And if they can live, if that allows

them to live independently and have that autonomy, that that's a good use of money

from a provincial perspective. And I think it's important to know there are...

because there are strict rules about ongoing eligibility. As caregivers or family

members that have a loved one that's on Aish, obviously that becomes a primary

planning tool to say, we want to make sure the person stays on Aish. And if you're

looking at it from an estate planning perspective, we've kind of touched on, you've

got to be careful how you hand money over because there is an asset test, there's

an income test. But it's important to, as the situation with that person evolves,

to make sure there's good communication. We've talked about the need for that, but

some of the problems that people run into is they just don't have, they're not

telling Aish about a change in circumstance, and that leads to claims for clawbacks

and other stresses in the system. So we want to make sure that the person has

continued eligibility and there's good communication with the Aish worker and you

document all that if you're the one who's a financial administrator or the, you

know, it's your family member that's, that's on Aish. But there is even an overview

from Aish itself, like on a yearly basis, they're checking to make sure that you

are still complying as far as the assets and so on. So you have to, you have to

continue to prove that you fit the, that you fit the criteria. And so there is

oversight, and there is, if there's all these people that they're insinuating are

taking advantage, they would all be weeded out through.

I think you've seen that in your practice, Annie, that there's a lot of advocacy

required and it's hard work to get on Aish. We've seen that in our own family

situation and we've seen it with countless clients who have, it's a big deal to get

on Aish and it's hard work. It's not an easy program because there are strict rules

and you have to meet those rules and then once you get it, you have to maintain.

It's not like no one's going to look at it after that. There's, it's constant

review and supervision with regard to the ongoing eligibility. Well,

and we want to make sure that people aren't, aren't stressed or feel like they're

scrutinized because they are in Aish. Sometimes I have to say to people, well, you

don't have to tell anybody that you're in Aish. Well, that shouldn't be. Aish is

there specifically for people that need help. There shouldn't be a feeling of less

than when they are on. And so we need to have a system that shows that there's

fairness and compassion for those who can't do for themselves not because of a

disability. And maintain their dignity through that process as well, because it can

be very demeaning to go through this. Everybody's second -guessing and asking for

proof and asking for all this information, which can be a burden for those that are

in that caregiver role, right? Or a parental role saying, you know, almost feels

like, well, you know, you have to prove your statements are true,

right? They're second -guessing everything. It's not a comfortable process to go

through. I think you've experience that. A lot of people feel like, okay, I need to

do this, but it's, it's not a pleasant process. No.

As we wrap up, thanks for listening. Hopefully, some of the things we talked about

about the current age program is helpful. If there's any questions you have, of

course, reach out to us, but we genuinely do appreciate and are warmed when we hear

people saying, I listen to your podcast. We're just recently launched that. Please

tell a friend, share this with other people, because that's why we're doing this,

is to get, you know, some good information to the disability community. So thank you

for sharing on that. You can find past episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

If you haven't subscribed, please do that. So you can also find further information

on the Disability Advocates website. Until next time, keep speaking up,

stay informed, and keep advocating.