Supports for Permanency Alberta: Eligibility, Rates, and the Income Test

What SFP Is and Who It Serves

The Supports for Permanency program provides financial and practical support to families who adopt or obtain a Private Guardianship Order for a child who was previously in permanent government care under a Permanent Guardianship Order (PGO) or Permanent Guardianship Agreement (PGA). It is administered by Children and Family Services and by Delegated First Nation Agencies.

The critical qualifier: the child must have been under a PGO or PGA before the Private Guardianship Order was granted. If you obtained private guardianship through the Family Law Act without the child ever being in government care, SFP does not apply to you.

The September 2025 Income Test

Effective September 1, 2025, families with a combined gross household income of $180,000 or more per year are excluded from the basic maintenance payment if their guardianship or adoption order was granted on or after that date.

Two groups are exempt from the income cap:

1. Existing recipients — anyone already receiving SFP basic maintenance before September 1, 2025 keeps it until the child turns 18, regardless of income changes
2. Transition cases — families who filed their court application on or before February 28, 2025, even if the order was granted after September 1, 2025

The income cap applies only to basic maintenance. Even families above $180,000 remain fully eligible for all other SFP supports: respite care, counselling, emotional and behavioural funding, and cultural travel reimbursements.

What SFP Pays

Basic maintenance follows the same age-based daily per diem schedule as formal kinship care, updated with a 2% increase effective April 1, 2026:

• Ages 0–1: $26.00/day (~$780/month)
• Ages 12–15: $34.69/day (~$1,041/month)
• Ages 16–17: $39.66/day (~$1,190/month)

Beyond the per diem, SFP provides:

• Up to 576 hours of respite care per year per family
• Up to $70 per week ($3,640/year) for emotional and behavioural support
• Up to 10 counselling sessions per year per child or family
• Coverage for medically necessary orthodontic care and assessments
• Cultural travel reimbursement for First Nations children visiting their band community ($0.570/km plus meal per diems)

A Key Advantage Over Formal Kinship Care

While a child is in formal kinship care under a TGO, PGA, or PGO, the government claims the federal Children's Special Allowances and the kinship caregiver cannot receive the Canada Child Benefit or the Alberta Child and Family Benefit. Once a Private Guardianship Order is granted and the child is no longer in government care, the caregiver becomes eligible to claim both the CCB (up to $8,157/year for a child under 6) and the ACFB (up to $1,529/year base component for one child) on top of the SFP payments.

This dual eligibility — SFP daily rates plus federal and provincial tax-delivered benefits — makes the private guardianship track significantly more financially robust than remaining under a Permanent Guardianship Order.

How to Apply

SFP eligibility is assessed by the Children and Family Services office or DFNA that managed the child's file while under the PGO. The application happens as part of the Private Guardianship Order process — your caseworker should initiate it. If they do not, ask specifically about SFP during the transition planning.

Our Alberta kinship financial help guide includes the full SFP eligibility decision tree, the document checklist for proving your income falls below the cap, and a comparison of what you gain and lose at each stage of the transition from formal care to private guardianship.

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