Cashing BC Employment and Assistance cheques
The consumer protection law in BC speaks to how much can be charged for cashing specific types of government cheques. This fee cap applies to any business who cashes these cheques, including payday lenders.
The most that can be charged to cash a BC Employment and Assistance cheque is either $2.00 plus 1% of the cheque amount or $10 – whichever is less. This means it should never cost more than $10 to cash these cheques.
These laws only apply to BC Employment and Assistance cheques:
- Issued by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (SDPR). The Ministry only issues two kinds of cheques: the face of the cheque will indicate “BC Employment and Assistance” or “BC Employment and Assistance Imprest Account”.
- Imprest (on demand) cheques issued by the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD).
BC Employment and Assistance cheques include two electronic signatories rotated monthly issued on blue, green, or pink cheque stock.
Look at samples of BC Employment and Assistance cheques
The fee cap does not apply to manually printed cheques. These cheques are only issued in extreme circumstances. The payment details and signatures on these cheques are filled out in handwriting.
Read the Government Cheque Cashing Fees Regulation.
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