Thank you, Madam Speaker. I thank the Member for bringing this issue to my attention earlier. I have had the department check into this situation and this is the only example of this type of circumstance happening that we can find. I can also assure the Member that we don't believe the rent was paid after the individual moved out. However, the individual never gave notice to the landlord that they were leaving and so the landlord claims that there is more rent owing than what the individual believes.

It is a situation too, where we offer a number of clients on income support the opportunity to be payrolled. This opportunity is offered often to people who are disabled, to seniors, to people whose circumstances aren't likely to change or that we expect will come in and inform the staff when they do change. People who receive income support are clearly told that they must tell income support whenever their circumstances change. In this instance, this individual never did advise the income support worker that their circumstances had changed.

Often people are put on a payroll system for up to 12 months. So in this circumstance, after six months the individual's circumstances changed, the office wasn't notified and, the Member is right, there were four months of cheques that were issued that should not have been. However, to his credit, the individual did not try to cash the cheques, but instead notified the department and all of the cheques had a stop payment put on them. Thank you, Madam Speaker.