Community Services giveth and Community Services taketh away. The tiny increases people on income assistance will get next year may push them over the Poverty Reduction Credit threshold. The department says it doesn’t yet know what to do about it, or how many people will be affected.
We like to tell good news stories, and this one by Kendall Worth you don’t want to miss. A young woman on income assistance gets to go to university, and she credits the free bus pass as the reason it all got started.
Kendall Worth with a reminder that even the smallest things, like buying cleaning supplies, are a challenge when you are on income assistance. And when your trusty old vacuum cleaner dies you’re really screwed.
Kendall Worth reports on some good news for income assistance recipients: as of May 1 you will be able to keep more of your earnings from tips, commissions and other income from self-employment.
Kendall Worth gives us an update on a young woman he wrote about earlier. Thankfully the harassment by a fellow tenant has stopped, but she lost some of her income assistance benefits. If we had a guaranteed basic income none of this would have happened, writes Kendall.
BRAG (Benefits Reform Action Group) invites you to a free screening of the documentary “My Week on Welfare” in Dartmouth, om May 29. Watch the screening, and share your own stories.
The Income Assistance policy manual is brutally clear about when you qualify for dental care when you’re on welfare. Don’t bother looking for help if it doesn’t bleed, hurt, or stop you from getting a job. Preventative care isn’t even mentioned in the manual.
Kendall Worth, in his final story he wrote with Daryl and Darlene, talks about their dreams and the importance of having peer support with lived experience in the emergency room, to help people who come in with mental health issues.
The number of people receiving income assistance in Nova Scotia has been steadily decreasing over the last 6 to 7 years, and the Department of Community Services doesn’t seem to know why that is.
Kendall Worth reports that Community Services has no plans to stop the annual reviews for people on social assistance. Many recipients feel that the practice is punitive and humiliating, and too often results in cuts.