It depends on whether the application was actually sent to the embassy. If you have a copy of your application, look to see which box you checked in Item 1 of
IMM1344. Under "If you are found ineligible to sponsor" there are two choices:
Withdraw the sponsorship application - all fees less $75 will be refunded or
Proceed with the application - fees will be retained. If you checked the box to proceed with the application, it will go to the overseas embassy even though you were not found eligible to sponsor, and it will be refused because a sponsored applicant cannot be approved without an eligible sponsor. You will lose all your processing fees as well.
If you checked the box to withdraw the sponsorship application if you are found ineligible to sponsor, they will return the application to you and refund the fees. In that case, all you'd have to do would be to get the social assistance matter resolved and then resubmit the application. It complicates things significantly to have the application go overseas - I'm not sure how, or if, you can withdraw it at that point. If that's your situation, maybe someone else has dealt with it, too, and can advise.
Hopefully you checked the box to withdraw the ap if you were not eligible to sponsor so you can get your fees back and be able to resubmit as soon as the social assistance issue is resolved. That should be the only option when someone is sponsoring a family member, because of the fact that a sponsored family member cannot be approved without an eligible sponsor.
