Head scratcher: Unpublished policies, and regulations that don’t mean what they say at Community Services
Unpublished policies and regulations that say unintended things are part of how Community Services conducts its business.
Welfare
Letter – Poverty activists to Community Services bureaucrats: Could we speak with your manager, please
The Benefits Reform Action Group sent a letter to the Community Services Standing Committee, explaining why it is no longer interested in meetings with bureaucrats that go nowhere.
Kendall Worth: More special diet blues
Anti-poverty activist Kendall Worth on five income assistance recipients who all lost their special diets in the last little while, even though their medical doctors told Community Services that the diet was medically necessary. What to do?
Alec Stratford: Nova Scotia’s income assistance changes lack empathy
Alec Startford: “The recent changes to the Income Assistance Program are embedded in a traditional worldview that poverty is largely the result of an individual deficit, that people need to work harder to join the workforce, and for those who can’t work, we feel sympathy for their suffering and we want to relieve the pain. The grounding principle in this worldview is that the free market is the best and most efficient way to alleviate poverty. Where it can’t the social welfare system will provide remedial services to relieve suffering.”
Kendall Worth: A phone, just like a bus pass, is a basic necessity
Kendall Worth on the difficulties of searching for a job without a phone, and why a phone is a basic necessity for a person on income assistance.
Community Services trounced once again in Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has ruled that Community Services cannot refuse to pay a welfare recipient for suitable housing just because the rent exceeds the shelter allowance. We talk to Dalhousie Legal Aid lawyer lawyer Claire McNeil, who argued the case, and community legal aid worker Fiona Traynor, about the scope of this milestone decision.
Community Services saves millions on social assistance payments
Community Services spent $3.5 million less on social assistance payments than budgeted. Social assistance recipients continue to live well below the poverty line.
Kendall Worth: Celebrating life is a right, not a privilege
On the occasion of his birthday, Kendall ponders how celebrating life’s milestones is a right, not a privilege, and also suggests a way people might watch world cup soccer games without paying hefty cable fees.
Why talk when nobody listens? Benefit Reform Action Group halts discussions with Community Services
The annual review for people on social assistance is intrusive, stressful, and often unnecessary. But when BRAG complained to the Standing Committee it turned into a lengthy exchange of letters. Enough of that, says BRAG. Here is the story, as told by Kendall Worth.
Kendall Worth: A helping hand – Community lifts young woman out of poverty
Sometimes all you need is a lucky break! Kendall Worth with a heartwarming story how a community came together to put a young woman on social assistance back on her feet and how her future now looks much brighter than ever before.