Details around Community Services bus pass announced
Finally we learn some details around the free bus pass for people on social assistance who live in HRM.
Welfare
Kendall Worth: In case of emergency – Nothing is ever easy when you’re poor
Kendall Worth, on what to do when you don’t have anybody who cares enough to want to be your emergency contact. Nothing is ever easy when you’re poor.
Kendall Worth: Community Services case worker knows better than doctor about special diet requirement
Kendall Worth reports on yet another case where a Community Services case worker questions the opinions of a doctor about special diet requirements. We hear quite a bit about this happening.
Book review: A wholesome horror. Poor houses in Nova Scotia.
There’s a wonderful new book on the history or poor houses and poor farms in Nova Scotia, written by poverty activist and frequent NS Advocate contributor Brenda Thompson. Things are better now, of course, but in a way not much has changed for people who are very poor.
Lives on welfare: The system traps you from generation to generation
We first met Sophia a couple of months ago, and did a Lives on Welfare story about her efforts to provide for her family while struggling with chronic pain. Here are more of Sophia’s memories about growing up on and off welfare. Unable to afford a computer, Sophia wrote this on her phone, because born story tellers like Sophia will always find a way.
Kendall Worth: Waive the fee for criminal record checks for people on social assistance!
These days you pretty well need a criminal record check for any job that’s out there., says Kendall Worth. But these things cost $50, and when you’re on welfare and all you get is $275 then that’s a lot of money. If society really wants people on social assistance to find jobs, then either the police should waive the fee, or Community Services should pick up the bill.
Halifax’s free bus passes for people on social assistance, it’s a bit of a mess
Don’t get me wrong, free bus passes for all Halifax residents on social assistance is a good thing. But what about the people in rural NS? And what about the people who will lose their transportation special needs subsidy? Always constructive, I also offer a solution: Raise the rates!
Lives on welfare: An invisible disability
Another episode in our series Lives on Welfare where people living in poverty tell their stories: Things went relatively well for Emma, a mother who lives with her daughter in a town an hour or so away from Halifax. Then she got sick, lost her job, and ended up on social assistance. Then her daughter also got sick.
‘This isn’t solved by giving somebody a bag of food.’ An interview with food insecurity expert Valerie Tarasuk
We interview food security expert Dr. Valerie Tarasuk, who will be visiting Nova Scotia later this week. She talks about hunger counts that don’t count hunger, food banks that don’t solve food insecurity, and income thresholds that don’t reflect it. Also, why people who are food insecure get sick so much, even if the illness has nothing to do with diet. And finally, what we should do to fix the problem.
Kendall Worth: Happy ending after Community Services screw up
Poverty activist and frequent contributor Kendall Worth writes about several couples who weren’t receiving the full shelter allowance they were entitled to, how it was discovered, and how it was fixed. News you can use.