Helping vulnerable Canadians get COVID-19 benefits and financial relief

The Financial Relief Navigator - soft launch. 

More than seven million Canadians have lost their jobs or seen a drop in earned income due to COVID-19 and are urgently seeking financial relief. For many Canadians on low incomes, COVID-19 has just made their lives much, much worse. 

In response to the crisis, we developed the Financial Relief Navigator (FRN), an online tool that helps vulnerable Canadians access critical emergency benefits and financial relief from governments, financial institutions, telecoms and internet providers. While some other tools focus on only emergency benefits, the FRN acts as a one-stop portal where Canadians can access relief measurers from all of these entities. 

Some unique features include: 

• Simple, intuitive navigation with plain language descriptions of benefits and financial relief measures. 
• Information on the impact of COVID-19 benefits on existing benefits that people may already be receiving (e.g. Social Assistance). 
• Information on relief measures in place for major banks, credit unions, utilities and telephone/internet providers. 

The Financial Relief Navigator will be available in French in early June when we will be launching the tool in both languages publicly. Until then, we encourage you to share the English FRN throughout your networks to support your clients in these challenging times. 

We are extremely grateful for the generous support of United Way Centraide Canada, United Way Greater Toronto, TD and Bridgeable for their early support of the FRN. We also thank all of our financial empowerment partners for helping us test and refine the tool.  

Prosper Canada is committed to keeping content as up-to-date as possible by posting changes and new information on a timely basis. We are also exploring the following new features: 

• Helping users connect with supportive groups and agencies that can help them receive their benefits. 
• Providing FAQ pages with expert responses to common issues and challenges with specific benefits, to help users understand how to access their benefit(s). 
• Convening a lived experience advisory group to help ensure the FRN is as useful and relevant as possible for vulnerable Canadians. 

Visit: https://financialreliefnav.prospercanada.org  

Feel free to give us your feedback to help us improve the FRN. Email Janet Flynn at jflynn@prospercanada.org.