More Money for Families that Qualify

If you receive the National Child Benefit Supplement and you have a child born after December 31, 2003, you may have some money available to you, 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, free of charge, all you need 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 4 years old that could be worth over $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.

This useful brochure outlines the steps you need to take and how the program works but it is pretty straight forward:

1. You need to be receiving the Nation Child Benefit Supplement (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.

Now as I have said in my RESP Lessons Learned article, where you put your RESP is important 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!