Op-ed: Social assistance can be fixed
Lately several people have told me that welfare in Nova Scotia is beyond repair. Here I want to challenge that notion, because it is both nonsense and a bit dangerous.
Welfare transformation
Like screaming and not hearing an echo — International day for the eradication of poverty in Halifax
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Halifax first voice activists and their allies called for all levels of government to stop their empty tinkering and finally start addressing poverty in a meaningful way. Start by listening carefully to people with a lived experience of poverty, was the message, and put your money where your mouth is.
Nothing for people on welfare in Nova Scotia budget
There is no money for people on social assistance in yesterday’s Liberal budget. That kind of a mean spirited attitude doesn’t bode well for the secretive welfare transformation project the department has been working on since 2015.
Kendall Worth: when it comes to poverty it is time to get loud
Kendall Worth on the need to raise the rates, and other demands now that the legislature will be sitting again on September 21.
News brief: Anti-poverty organizers get organized
Members of the Benefits Reform Action Group (BRAG), anti-poverty activists with a focus on Nova Scotia’s heartless welfare regime, spent an entire day talking about strategy and big pictures.
Kendall Worth: Another open letter to Community Services minister Kelly Regan
This is Kendall’s second open letter to Community Services minister Kelly Regan. Turns out there were a couple of issues he forgot to raise. “Something I want to bring to your attention in this letter is something I wrote about how caseworkers get away with behaving like they are medical professionals when it comes to approving special diets. It is also this part of the ESIA policy that sets the stage for caseworkers further questioning doctors about the medical documentation that clients provide.”
Word on the street is things are getting tougher for people on income assistance
Kendall Worth lately has been hearing a lot of stories about special diet allowances being cut and unpleasant annual reviews. Lives on welfare are getting harder, and he doubts that the welfare transformation will make things better..
Kendall Worth: An open letter to Kelly Regan, the new minister of Community Services
After the defeat of Joanne Bernard we now have a new minister of Community Services in Kelly Regan. Kendall Worth, frequent contributor and chair of the Benefits Reform Action Group, wrote this open letter to tell her what’s wrong with the department in terms of income assistance, and how to fix it.
Op-ed: A new minister for Community Services — Time to get loud
A new minister for Community Services, but we predict that nothing will change. Low key and polite advocacy hasn’t been able to stop the decades-long downward slide of income assistance rates. Time to try something else.
We need to force them to tell us exactly what their plans are — Fiona Traynor on welfare transformation
In a recent talk at a community meeting on welfare, Fiona Traynor, a community legal worker at Dalhousie Legal Aid raised the alarm about the state of income assistance in Nova Scotia. Cuts to allowances and an increase in poor bashing have her worried.
In that speech Traynor also called for a strategic push back against the Community Services welfare transformation initiative, something we are told will change the way income assistance is delivered, but that has otherwise been low on details. We talked with Traynor late last week to further explore these issues.