Nova Scotia Eligibility Review Unit: How the ERU Determines Your Parent's Care Rate

What the Eligibility Review Unit Does

The Eligibility Review Unit (ERU) is the provincial office that determines how much your parent actually pays for long-term care accommodation in Nova Scotia. Every licensed nursing home and residential care facility charges a Standard Accommodation Charge — $114.00 per day for nursing homes, $68.00 per day for residential care facilities — but the ERU can reduce that rate based on your parent's income.

The ERU sits within the Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care. It handles every income-based rate determination in the province — initial applications, annual reassessments, spousal income protection calculations, and appeals when families disagree with a rate decision.

If your parent enters a licensed facility without applying to the ERU, they pay the full Standard Accommodation Charge by default. There's no automatic assessment — the family must initiate the application.

The Application Process

The rate reduction application begins when your parent is approved for the provincial long-term care waitlist or receives a bed offer. Here's the sequence:

Step 1: Obtain the application. The form is called the "Long Term Care Facility Financial Application." Your Care Coordinator can provide it, or it's available through the facility's administration office.

Step 2: Assemble the required documents. The ERU needs:

• Your parent's most recent CRA Notice of Assessment (the tax document showing Net Income on Line 23600 and Total Taxes Owed on Line 43500)
• A signed CRA "Consent to Release Taxpayer Information" form, which authorizes the ERU to verify the numbers directly with the Canada Revenue Agency
• A copy of any active Enduring Power of Attorney if someone other than the resident is managing the application

Step 3: Submit and wait. Processing typically takes approximately eight weeks. During this period, the facility may bill the full Standard Accommodation Charge. If the ERU determines that the resident was overcharged because of a calculation error or a delay in processing documentation, the reduced rate is applied retroactively to the date of admission, and the family receives a credit for the overpayment.

How the ERU Calculates the Rate

The ERU uses a straightforward formula based entirely on income — no assets are considered:

Assessed Income = Net Income (Line 23600) minus Total Taxes Owed (Line 43500)

From this assessed income, the ERU guarantees your parent retains the greater of:

• $366.00 per month (the Minimum Retained Income), or
• 15% of their total assessed income

The remainder — whatever is left after the retained income is set aside — becomes the daily accommodation charge, capped at the Standard Accommodation Charge. No one pays more than the SAC, and no one pays more than 85% of their assessed income.

For a parent whose only income is CPP and OAS (say, $22,000 per year in net income after taxes), the ERU calculation typically produces a daily rate well below the $114.00 SAC. The exact figure depends on their specific tax situation, but many residents with modest pension income pay between $40.00 and $70.00 per day.

The Annual Reassessment

The ERU reviews every resident's rate once per year. The reassessment uses the most recent tax year data — your parent must file their income tax return annually and submit updated income documentation by June 30.

If the paperwork arrives on time, the ERU recalculates the rate and applies any adjustment (up or down) effective the next billing period. If the documentation is late or missing, the ERU defaults to the full Standard Accommodation Charge until the information arrives. This automatic penalty catches families who assume the annual review is optional — it isn't.

Income changes between annual reviews can also affect the rate. If your parent's income drops significantly (for example, after filing the ISP3040 involuntary separation form with Service Canada, which recalculates GIS on individual rather than joint income), contact the ERU to ask whether an interim reassessment is available rather than waiting for the annual cycle.

What to Do if You Disagree With the Rate

If the ERU's rate determination seems wrong — perhaps they used the wrong tax year, failed to account for spousal income splitting, or made a calculation error — the family has the right to request an administrative review within 30 days of receiving the rate determination letter.

The review is handled internally by the ERU. Submit a written request explaining specifically what you believe is incorrect, and include supporting documentation (the relevant Notice of Assessment, evidence of the spousal income threshold application, or any other relevant financial records).

Most disputes stem from timing issues — the ERU used last year's income data when this year's is significantly lower, or the involuntary separation filing with Service Canada hasn't been processed yet when the ERU runs its calculation. These usually resolve once the updated federal documents arrive and the ERU recalculates.

For a detailed walkthrough of the ERU application — including the income-testing formula with worked examples, a document assembly checklist, and the spousal protection calculations — the Nova Scotia Long-Term Care Costs & Subsidies Guide covers the full financial assessment process step by step.

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