More Money for Families that Qualify

Receive the Canada Child Benefit and have a child born after December 31, 2003. You may have some money available to help with your child’s education, the Canada Learning Bond.

This $500 grant from the government is available to you if you qualify for it. All there is to do is set up an RESP for your child, fill in the forms at the institution you use for your RESP, and the Learning Bond will (eventually) be deposited into the account for your child. Now $500 may not sound like much, but for a child who is four years old, that could be worth about $1500 by the time they get to a post-secondary schooling age (your investment value may vary), so it is nothing to sneeze at either. The government will deposit up to $2000 total for each child with the CLB.

The Government of Canada contributes up to $2,000 to an RESP for an eligible child. This includes:

* $500 for the first year of eligibility

* $100 each year the child continues to be eligible (up to and including the benefit year in which they turn 15)

Apply for the Canada Learning Bond (CLB) – About the Bond

This helpful brochure outlines the steps you need to take and how the program works, but it is pretty straightforward:

1. You need to be receiving the Canada Child Benefit (if you are ineligible for that, you are most likely ineligible for this as well).
2. Your child needs to be born after December 31,2003
3. Get your child a Social Insurance Number (you should do this no matter what)
4. Go and set up an RESP with a reputable institution of some kind
5. Fill in forms for the Learning Bond, and wait.

As I have said in my RESP Lessons Learned article, where you put your RESP is essential so do a little research before opening an RESP for your child, and it will save you hours of headaches many years later.

Every little bit helps, and this is another little bit the government is offering, so please go and get it!

More on Canada Learning Bond

• Pro Literacy did a guest post about RESP’s in general and CLB’s in specifc.
• Sometimes Putting Money into an RESP doesn’t make sense, but with the CLB still open an RESP.
• I have written about the Canada Learning Bond before.
• Canada Learning Bond Frustrations really was me being silly enough to believe I made so little that my kids would get the CLB.
• Are RESPs only for Rich Folk ? Banks certainly think that is the case
• Plenty of other articles about the world of the Registered Education Savings Plan