Review the eligibility criteria for the one-time payment.

On this page

• Eligibility criteria
• Impacts on taxes and other benefits
• If you have not received your payment yet
• Verifying your eligibility

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the one-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit, you must have met the following criteria:

• You were born on or before December 1, 2007 (at least 15 years old on December 1, 2022)
• Your principal residence was in Canada on December 1, 2022 What was a principal residence
  

  For this benefit, your principal residence was the place where you normally lived and paid rent in 2022.

  This could have been any abode, dwelling or other place rented. Examples of principal residence included a house, cottage, condominium, apartment in an apartment building, apartment in a duplex, college or university residence, trailer, mobile home, or houseboat.

  Generally, you would have had only one principal residence at a time, unless you were living apart from a spouse or common-law partner.

• You were a resident of Canada in 2022 for tax purposes Determine if you were a resident of Canada for tax purposes
  

  You were not eligible for this one-time payment if you were considered a non-resident of Canada in 2022.

  You were a non-resident of Canada in 2022 for income tax purposes if any of the following were true:

  • you normally, customarily, or routinely lived in another country during 2022 and were not considered a resident of Canada
  • you did not have significant residential ties in Canada and any of the following applied:
    • you lived outside Canada throughout 2022
    • you stayed in Canada for less than 183 days in 2022

  Read more about determining your residency status.

• 
  
  • You filed your 2021 income tax return or statement of income by March 31, 2023
  • If you had a spouse or common-law partner, they also filed their 2021 income tax return or statement of income by March 31, 2023

  If you were not a resident of Canada during 2021
  

  You must have submitted a statement of income by March 31, 2023 to have met the income reporting requirement.

  You could have submitted a statement of income if you applied for either the Canada Child Benefit or the GST/HST Credit and Climate Action Incentive Payment.

• In 2021, you had an adjusted family net income of:

  • $35,000 or less for families
  • $20,000 or less for individuals
  What was considered a family or individual
  

  Individual

  If none of the criteria for family (shown below) applied to you, then you were considered an individual.

  If you separated on or before December 1, 2022 due to a breakdown in your relationship:

  • you would have been considered an individual if you waited 90 days after your separation began before you applied
  • you would have been considered a family if you applied before 90 days had passed after your separation began

  Family

  You were considered a family if any of the following applied:

  • you were married or living common-law and you had not been separated because of a breakdown of your marriage or common-law partnership, for a period of at least 90 days on December 1, 2022
  • you were receiving the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) for a child under 18 years of age on December 1, 2022
  • you claimed a deduction under line 30400 of your 2021 income tax return for any of the following:
    • your parent or grandparent
    • your child, grandchild, or sibling under 18 years of age
    • your child, grandchild, or sibling 18 years of age or older with impairment in physical or mental functions

  If none of the criteria for family applied to you, then you were considered an individual.

  How your adjusted family net income was calculated
  

  The CRA calculated your adjusted family net income for this benefit based on your 2021 income information.

  You can answer a few questions to estimate your adjusted family net income and rent.

• The 2022 eligible rent that you paid was:

  • paid in the 2022 calendar year
  • paid for any of your qualifying principal residences in 2022
  • equal to at least 30% of your 2021 adjusted family net income

  Find out if your rent payments qualified
  

  Eligible rent

  Check what was considered eligible rent.

  Estimate your adjusted family net income and rent

  You can answer a few questions to estimate your adjusted family net income and rent and find out if your 2022 rent was at least 30% of your 2021 adjusted family net income.

  If you applied using CRA My Account or by phone, you were asked for your rent amount and informed if your 2022 rent was at least 30% of your 2021 adjusted family net income.

Note: The applicant had to be alive on the date their application for the one-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit was made.

Impacts on taxes and other benefits

The payment was not taxable. This means you will not need to report the one-time payment on your income tax return.

The one-time top-up to the Canada Housing Benefit does not reduce other federal income-tested benefits such as the Canada Workers Benefit, Canada Child Benefit, Goods and Services Tax Credit, and Guaranteed Income Supplement. Impacts on provincial or territorial benefits were determined at the discretion of each province or territory.

To apply for this new federal one-time payment, you did not need to receive other housing benefits such as the Canada Housing Benefit (a benefit co-funded and delivered by the provinces and territories).

If you have not received your payment yet

Depending on how you applied, it may take longer to process your application and send your payment.

Average times to receive payment

Direct deposit

Direct deposit takes about 5 to 7 business days.

By mail

A mailed cheque should arrive in about 10 to 12 business days.

Verifying your eligibility

Keep your records and receipts to support the amounts in your application. The CRA routinely checks to confirm that recipients were entitled to the payment they received.

If your application is selected for review, the CRA may ask you to provide additional information.

If you have received a payment and are later found to be ineligible, you will be contacted to make arrangements to return the payment. If you are found to have misrepresented or concealed information to make a fraudulent claim, additional consequences and penalties may also be applied.

You can report suspected misuse through the CRA's Leads program.

Document navigation

• Next: If your application is selected for review