Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Welfare

Not dealing with food insecurity not just cruel, it’s also dumb

0 Comment

In Ontario yearly health care costs for a food secure person are around $1600. The same costs for a person who experiences severe food insecurity are almost $4000. Almost 4% of Nova Scotia’s households experienced severe food insecurity, meaning that people missed meals, reduced food intake and at the most extreme went day(s) without food. You can’t solve our healthcare crisis while you ignore those numbers. Raise the rates and the minimum wage!

Kendall Worth: Let’s see some real transformation for people on social assistance after hearing about it for five years or so

2 Comments

Kendall Worth on the Community Services transformation project: “We understand things don’t happen overnight. However the length of time this transformation has been taking to date is concerning and frustrating to people in the community. Right now we are five years into the transformation and very few problems for people who depend on this system have gotten resolved. Why is the length of this transformation process taking so long for people to see positive results?”

Open letter to Minister Kelly Regan: The stakes are high and the department of Community Service must do better

6 Comments

After supporting income assistance clients as a Senior Law Student at the Dalhousie Legal Aid Clinic, Katie Brady felt compelled to write an open letter to minister Kelly Regan of Community Services. In the letter Katie identifies three areas where the department could and should do better: too much paperwork; a lack of compassion; and policies that are changed without warning, let alone input from advocates and clients. Read this letter carefully, the examples are mind boggling, and the stakes are high.

Kendall Worth: Woman on social assistance harassed on the bus

3 Comments

One of the many hard things about having to depend on social assistance is the stigma. People often assume you’re lazy, even though invisible disabilities stop you from working. The other day poverty advocate Kendall Worth talked with one such person, who got verbally attacked by her fellow passengers on the bus.