Re: Expectations from the Community of People living in Poverty and from Poverty Advocates!
By Kendall Worth!
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| Kendall Worth - Photo By Laura Conrad |
Dear Nova Scotia MLA’s;
My name is Kendall Worth and I am writing this letter to you because the legislature is set to resume on March 24th, 2022. I am a journalist who advocates for a wide range of people, with a wide range of issues, but all deal with poverty and living with the stigma that entails. Many also experience mental health issues or live with disabilities - both mental and physical. Throughout my writing I illustrate how living on $950.00/mo hurts mental health, and increases stigma toward recipients; and I try to increase the awareness of the public and official’s knowledge, regarding polices of Department of Community Services ESIA program. There has been little improvement in the Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) program, the homeless population keeps growing, and people having untreated mental health issues, is a worsening crisis, in Nova Scotia. The community of people I advocate for, believes there is a lot in this upcoming session for you to look at, of course, keeping in mind we are coming out of a pandemic.
I am writing this letter because:
Before COVID hit, Community Services was embarking on an ESIA transformation. People affected want to know: “Now that COVID restrictions are lessened where does this leave the ESIA transformation?”
The income assistance rates never were, and are still not, enough money to live on.
There is anxiety in the community of people living in poverty around how they are going to re-adjust to getting back into “normal life”.
It is not obvious how people living in poverty/Income Assistance recipients are going to adjust to a”new normal”, when they do not have the same resources as financially better off people.
However, “the System” had a lot of problems even in pre-COVID times.
The Community of people I advocate for continue to experience the following issues:
Income Assistance workers are too often abusive toward clients, especially those who need help the most;
There is too much bureaucratic nonsense and systemic problems with trying to qualify for what support IS available;
Community Services does not assist, even promotes, that living life with social isolation is OK;
The system causes ESIA clients to develop depression and anxiety while receiving income assistance;
The current system provides insufficient money to live on;
The current processes require caseworkers to know too much personal information about you.
The House is set to Resume on March 24th 2022, and with the New PC Government is presenting their first budget, during this upcoming sitting. I want to write to you about what poverty advocates and people-living-in-poverty are expecting to see in this upcoming session and budget.
A transformation of the Employment Support and Income Assistance program has been going on for 7 years now, but people are still having problems with the system of receiving Income Assistance. This is why in the upcoming sitting of the house it is important to have another look at the ESIA transformation, and to consider the next steps in Transformation.
The understanding, when the “Transformation” was first introduced in 2013, is that “the whole system of ESIA is going to be looked at from top to Bottom.”
Here is what the Community of folks living in poverty believe still needs to be done:
Through this transformation, the community was led to believe that clients, who had their special diet allowance cut, would get re-instated through Transformation. This never happened.
Even though there have been rate increases, IA allowances are still not enough money to live on, especially given the massive increase in housing costs in the last two years.
Those who are responsible for the Transformation have got to do better on housing – taking into account actual market rents when constructing the new allowance structures. Otherwise, the homeless population is going to continue to increase.
The bureaucratic nonsense and systemic problems of Community Services continues, and needs to be dealt with. Annual reviews are particularly problematic!
Income Assistance Annual Reviews!
Annual Reviews have always been an issue with Income Assistance Recipients. They have always been intense, intrusive, and workers tend to be abusive toward clients. There are too many opportunities for caseworkers to interfere or make remarks about the client’s life and life choices.
However, since the Standard Household Rate came into effect in January 2020, Annual Reviews have never stopped. However, clients have found them a bit less intrusive since 2020. What seems to be different is that since the Standard Household came into effect, caseworkers have stopped asking their clients to provide receipts to prove that their rent is up to date, and also stopped asking clients to provide copies of power bills.
Also, in recent years, caseworkers have stopped asking their clients to regularly prove the need for a special diet in cases in which a physician has said there was a chronic and ongoing need for a special diet. People no longer have to prove it year after year. (But those denied a special diet have not had them reinstated and you still do need to prove “medical need”. )
Issues still happening during Income Assistance annual reviews that need to stop:
They are still asking clients to explain in their own words their “Current Health Condition” even though documentation from their Doctor proving their disability(s) and/or health condition is already in their Income Assistance file.
They are still asking clients to prove that their marital status is “Single”, or if the IA client has a common law partner. When a client has a Common Law Partner or is “seeing someone,” caseworkers are still asking IA Clients to bring their spouse, (married or common law) or even “the person they are seeing” to their Annual Review, with them. This should not be allowed, and is a blatant invasion of privacy.
They are still requiring clients to have a medical reason to get approved for the telephone allowance. Caseworker are still asking on a yearly basis for Doctor’s notes for qualifying for that allowance and still asking for copies of telephone bills.
More needs to be change about the Annual Review and the best idea is to do away with these Reviews altogether!
Credit, where credit is due. There have been a few positive changes to ESIA from 2013 to 2022.
Income Assistance Recipients are now allowed to keep more earnings from employment. Now they are allowed to keep $250.00 before anything gets Clawed back from regular employment (was $150). Now from supportive employment they are allowed to keep the first $350.00 before earnings gets Clawed back. (was $300)
Income from “Self Employment” is now treated the same as Employment Income. Before this change happened, Self Employment was clawed back at 100%. Now Self Employment earnings are treated the same as employment earnings as outlined above.
All Income Assistance Recipients now have access to Bus Passes. Used to be much more restrictive.
The Standard Household Rate is now in effect. Before the Standard Household Rate came into effect, if your rent and power bill totalled less than $535.00 you got the exact amount of the bills. Under the new Standard Household Rate, everyone gets the $950.00 for shelter and personal allotment.
Many of the those I advocate for are also users of the mental health system that also needs to improve. Seeing little change happening through out this whole time of transformation makes some first voice believe that this has always has been only a so-called transformation. We need to let these people know this is a real transformation. People would have believed that this is a real transformation is the Government had of moved faster on ESIA Transformation.
In addition, the population of Homeless people in Nova Scotia keeps increasing and anxiety keeps brewing. So we as advocates believe that in this upcoming sitting you need to have a serous look of what is going on with Income Assistance recipients, homelessness and mental health in Nova Scotia.
Hopefully, the day will come we will have a better system of ESIA under Department of Community Services.
Yours truly,
Kendall R. Worth
on behalf of N.S. Income Assistance Recipients.
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