B.C. Social Development Minister Rich Coleman plans to cut off welfare and disability payments to people with outstanding arrest warrants. (CBC)

Critics are raising concerns about a new bill introduced by the B.C. government that would deny social assistance or disability benefits to anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant.

The provincial minister for housing and social development, Rich Coleman, said the bill is aimed mainly at people from other provinces who move to B.C., although it applies to anyone with an outstanding warrant for an indictable offence anywhere in the country.

"They will now be asked if they have an outstanding warrant," Coleman told reporters at the legislature Monday. "If they have, they will be advised that they won't be eligible for social assistance until they clean up the warrant."

Shane Simpson, the NDP's housing and social development critic, was concerned that the bill is too broad because it does not list the indictable offences covered by the legislation.

"So arguably here a single mom who shoplifts groceries out of a supermarket, this could constitute an indictable offence for warrant purposes," Simpson said.

Simpson also questioned whether the bill was even enforceable.

The government does not plan to search the national police database for warrants. It would be up to those applying for social assistance to come clean about outstanding arrest warrants.

"The self-reporting part of this legislation is absurd,' said Simpson. "Is somebody who has a warrant for sexual assault in Ontario going to come forward when they apply for welfare … I don't think so."

If they are in trouble in another province, they'll be sent back to face the law.

"We put a provision in the act that we would actually be able to pay for transportation and send them back to their jurisdiction to clean up the warrant," said Coleman.

Coleman said if applicants don't tell the truth on their forms, they can be charged with welfare fraud.