More people will qualify for the NS Child Benefit program, and that’s a good thing. But there is nothing in the provincial budget to improve the lives of people on income assistance and their kids.
Kendall Worth tackles what he hopes to see at the upcoming session of the provincial legislature. He singles out affordable housing and rent control.
On Valentine’s Day Kendall Worth hopes that Community Services will reconsider its cohabitation policies that make it difficult for people on income assistance to share companionship.
Our Nova Scotia Government has spent over $10 million on the implementation of the welfare transformation since 2014, but the results are pretty depressing for most people on assistance. “I have one word for our government and that is criminal,” writes Jodi Brown.
A letter from the Community Society to End Poverty to Finance minister Karen Casey with recommendations for the upcoming provincial budget to raise incomes for people on income assistance and deal with the rental crisis.
Kendall Worth reports on a a bit of a miracle that turns thins around for three tenants facing huge rent increases.
Kendall Worth: “This is a story about a woman in her late twenties who was on income assistance at one time, but no more. We’ll call her Rachel (not her real name).”
Kendall Worth meets with Alec Stratford of the NS College of Social Workers.They talk about income assistance, Community Services, and social isolation, among other things.
The newest provincial welfare stats are in: In 2018 in Nova Scotia the very poor get poorer once again, and we continue to be the province with the lowest total incomes for people on social assistance.
Kendall Worth on two issues he and other people on income assistance care a lot about, the bureaucratic nonsense around special diets, and the need to raise the rates to something more like a living wage.