It’s Kendall’s birthday today. Meet Jason and Kate (not their real names), two welfare recipients who knew each other from back in the days when they lived a better off life. Kendall talks with them about birthdays and how life has changed altogether.
Kendall Worth hears that the welfare transformation project at Community Services is starting up again, and people in his community have lots of questions.
Reporter Kendall Worth meets up with Marie and Alice, two women on social assistance who dream about the day when they can afford to live somewhere where during the summer months they can have a BBQ out on their back decks or on their balconies. “Summertime is the most socially isolated time of year for the both of us, because of lack of funds to do things and the extra time spent by our lonesome,” they tell him.
Kendall Worth profiles Nathan (not his real name), who tells Kendall about his tiny income assistance budget, his loneliness and his fragile mental health.
Kendall Worth meets up with Julie, who is on income assistance and talks about how caseworkers basically control your life. “Julie was even told to keep the receipts of everything she spent so at her income assistance intake interview the intake worker can determine the money she had saved in her bank account was spent reasonably.”
Kendall Worth: Even though in the lives of the people I advocate for “normal” may seem different from what rich people would consider normal, people living in poverty are very much looking forward to the day that things like in-person dining at soup kitchens etc are re-opened.
In the fall of 2020 the federal government announced a “new Canadian Disability Benefit modeled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors”. Reporter Kendall Worth speaks with Sherry Costa of the NS League for Equal Opportunities about how the League plans to engage first voices, family, friends and allies in Nova Scotia.
People on income assistance feel that if they had been in a relationship of some sort during the pandemic it would have made a world of difference in their lives. One obstacle is right in the Community Services policy manual, writes Kendall Worth.
Filling out your census form if you can’t afford Internet and with the libraries closed is very difficult. Journalist Kendall Worth did some great advocating and has some good news.
The lockdown is making it hard to meet the census deadline for people who cannot afford Internet access or phones, writes Kendall Worth in an open letter to the minister in charge.