If you were receiving AISH before July 2026 and you now receive ADAP, your monthly income has probably not changed. That is deliberate, it is temporary, and the date it stops is already set.
When Alberta transitioned clients from AISH to the new Alberta Disability Assistance Program on 2 July 2026, it added a $200 monthly transition benefit so that a transitioned client's payment stayed the same as their previous AISH amount. The government's own wording is that this benefit "will keep their financial benefit the same as their existing AISH benefit amount until December 31, 2027."
After that date, the transition benefit ends. What remains is the ADAP rate.
We are writing this in August 2026. That is roughly sixteen months of notice, and sixteen months is enough time to do something about it if you start now. It is not enough time if you start in November 2027.
Who this applies to, and who it does not
You were not transitioned, and this page does not apply to you, if at the time of the change you met any one of these:
- you have a severe and profound developmental disability, or you were deemed eligible for or receiving Persons with Developmental Disabilities services
- you have a palliative or terminal medical condition
- you live in a continuing care home
- you are 60 years of age or older
Anyone on AISH who met one of those four automatically stayed on AISH. Everyone else was moved to ADAP unless they chose otherwise.
If you are not certain which happened to you, the fastest way to find out is your benefit statement and the Alberta Supports Contact Centre on 1-877-644-9992. It is worth checking rather than assuming.
The thing most people get wrong
Many people assume that if they disagree with being moved, they can appeal it.
They cannot. Alberta lists two decisions as expressly not appealable:
- the transition of your file from AISH to ADAP
- a decision that you are not medically eligible for AISH, including decisions made by the AISH Medical Review Panel
So the appeal route that people reach for first is closed. That is not the end of the road, but it does mean the road is a different one.
The route that is actually open
There are two.
First, a fresh AISH application. Alberta's own guidance is explicit: a transitioned client who believes AISH is more appropriate for their circumstances needs "a new application and eligibility review." Not a request, not a review of the transition, a new application.
Attached to that is the most useful provision in this whole change, and the one we most often find people do not know about. The Government of Alberta will cover the cost of one Disability Medical Report for an AISH client who transitioned to ADAP in July 2026 and later chooses to be assessed for AISH. There is no time limit on it.
The medical report is normally the barrier. Your health professional may charge for completing it, that cost normally falls on you, and for someone living on a disability income it is a real reason to postpone. For this specific group, once, it is paid for.
Second, if you have applied and been refused, look carefully at what was actually refused. The decision that you are not medically eligible for AISH cannot be appealed. But the decision about whether your file should be referred to the Medical Review Panel in the first place can be. That referral decision goes to the Medical Appeal Panel. It is a narrower target than most people aim at, and it is the one that is actually there.
If you are going that route, read what you can and cannot appeal, and how long you have before you do anything else, because the clock is short and it can start on a phone call.
Why starting early is not just good advice
Three reasons, all practical.
Your benefits are backdated to the month the department had everything, not the month you applied. A file that sits waiting for a medical report is not accruing anything.
Alberta publishes no processing time. Its only statement is that times vary with volume and with how quickly the financial and medical information arrives. You cannot plan around a number that does not exist, so the only variable you control is when you start.
A medical report takes as long as your health professional takes. Appointments, records, and the time to write it properly. That is weeks at best, and it is not weeks you can compress by worrying about them in December 2027.
What we would suggest doing this year
Confirm which programme you are in and whether you are receiving the transition benefit. Read your July 2026 correspondence rather than relying on memory.
If you believe your circumstances genuinely meet the AISH test, that your severe disability permanently prevents employment rather than significantly impeding it, start the conversation with your health professional now about the medical report, and ask about the covered assessment.
If you are unsure whether you meet it, that is a reasonable thing to be unsure about and it is worth talking through before you spend anyone's time on paperwork. The two tests are genuinely different and the difference is not obvious from the outside.
And if your circumstances change between now and then, which for many conditions they will, that is a reason to revisit this, not to assume the answer is fixed.
Where this sits with us
We help people prepare and organise these applications so that what arrives is complete, consistent and properly evidenced. We do not decide eligibility, we do not promise outcomes, and we are not a legal service. What we can do is help you understand which programme you are in, what the two tests actually ask, and what a well-prepared application looks like when it lands.
If 31 December 2027 is a date that concerns you, it is a good reason to have the conversation in 2026. Get in touch.