Provincial program · Quebec
Program de solidarité sociale
Quebec runs two programs, and the more generous one is never applied for.
What it is
The Social Solidarity Program is for people with a severely limited capacity for employment. Beside it sits the Basic Income Program, which pays more, lets you keep more of what you earn without losing benefit, and lets you hold more in assets.
Who it is for
For Social Solidarity, a severely limited capacity for employment, certified by a doctor. For Basic Income, nothing at all: you are admitted automatically once you have had severe health constraints for at least 66 of the previous 72 months while on Social Solidarity.
What it pays
- $1,318 a month
- is what one adult receives under the Social Solidarity Program — a basic benefit of $1,215 plus a $103 adjustment. The first $200 you earn does not reduce it.
- One adult under Social Solidarity, not everyone. A spouse, a student partner or social reintegration each carry their own amount, and Quebec runs a separate Basic Income Program that pays more and is never applied for.
- $1,336 a month
- is the 2026 basic benefit under the Basic Income Program, $16,032 for the year, and it is indexed. A single person can have a further $371 a month added on top. You can earn up to $16,032 a year before it is reduced at all.
- Nobody applies for this. You are admitted automatically from the Social Solidarity Program after severe health-related limitations for 66 of the previous 72 months — so the thing that decides it is how long you have already been on the other programme, not a form you can fill in.
- Gouvernement du Québec, published 2026 · 2026 (opens in a new tab) Checked August 26, 2026
- Gouvernement du Québec, published 2026 · 2026 (opens in a new tab) Checked August 26, 2026
How to apply
Through Services Québec. The Basic Income Program takes no application — a notice arrives a few weeks before the first payment, and that is the whole process.
What it does with the federal money
Exempt — it does not reduce your provincial payment
Quebec excludes it. The province amended its regulation on assistance to persons and families so that the Canada Disability Benefit is left out of the income calculation, in force 1 July 2025. It does not reduce your Social Solidarity or Basic Income payment.
What catches people out
The 66-months-in-72 rule is the one to know, because it runs silently and nobody applies for it. If you have been on Social Solidarity for more than five and a half years and have never heard of the Basic Income Program, that is worth a phone call this week.
Being on this program does not give you the Disability Tax Credit. It is a separate federal approval with its own test — and it is the one that unlocks the Canada Disability Benefit and the Registered Disability Savings Plan. A great many people receiving provincial support never apply, because they assume they are already covered.
The official page
Always the final word on rules, amounts and forms:
See what you may qualify for.
About four minutes. Nothing is shared with the government.