Some members of the Poverty/Disability/Income Assistance community are saying that more money to live on is not going to cancel out the need for other areas of social improvements!
By Kendall Worth!
Following articles on my blog, about the creation of a federal Disability Benefit, everyone I talked to about this Bill C-22, are excited that something, that may be better then our current Nova Scotia Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) program, is on it’s way. But, how the new Disability Benefit is going to be different is still a guessing game.
However there was another common comment. People I heard from recently, also told me: Whether we get an increase in the Income Assistance rates, or a disability benefit becomes available to us, this is always going to be need for a better mental health system. More money to live on will help us be able to live better, but every situation is different, and many people have other needs than just cash.
People I have spoken to recently agree that, if the Disability Benefit is $2000 a month - like CERB was - we will stop using food-banks. We will have no need for food-banks with such an increase in income. l However, they are also saying that they might no longer be dependent on the Soup Kitchens and other Drop-ins like the programs at the Canadian Mental Health Association Halifax/Dartmouth Branch, and Souls Harbour. But, they provide other things than food – so losing that support is easier said than done, because at those services in the community – people understand my community mentally, as well as financially. As I detailed in a two part blog post, ( Part I Part II) many, who are part of the community-of-people-I-advocate-for return home at the end of the day to a life of loneliness and social isolation. (unlike financially better-off/employed people return home who more often do not). As I spoke to in the blog posts, we are partly talking about section 6.1.8 of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Policy manual in Nova Scotia. Everyone I talked to agrees that, even if the new Disability benefit has no such Claw-Back as people experienced in my stories, we still lived for many year having NO-One in our lives with a romantic interest in us. We have got so used to living life alone and single, that everyone has a similar concern: if we do start receiving income from any new system and we then have an opportunity to meet someone who does have that type of interest is us, how do we then move from being so used to living life alone, if that were to happen?
More money is not going to cancel out the need for a Social Prescription Program. Those who I interviewed, just this evening, have pointed out that even if they qualify for and start receiving a federal disability, there is no assurance that it will be be a lot more money than the current Standard Household Rate of $950.00 provided by the ESIA Program in Nova Scotia.
Examples of the need for Social Prescriptions:
– First, with the holiday season around the corner, some people are going to get invites to go to events but will have no friends they can take as their guest. Second – they also point out what if, in the future we have extra money, to, say, catch a movie, or see a concert, we would hope to have a group of friends so we would never have to go these things by ourselves. We are not friends with the people we see a the Drop-ins and Soup Kitchens.
In a couple of blog posts (Part I Part II) I told a detailed story about an income assistance recipient and their struggles with social isolation, living on income assistance. The posts make points including:
“#1 – We cannot expect the government, or even an individual MLA to step in and help people repair friendships that have ended. People’s friendships end for a huge number of reasons; plus everyone needs to respect boundaries in a friendship.
#2 – Sometimes we also have to respect that people need their space, for reasons relating to anxiety occasionally people may ignore or “not be speaking to” another friend – there is nothing the government can do make anxiety or need for space go away.
#3 – Money is hardly ever available in a welfare recipient’s budget to go out and participate in social activities that have a cost. This factor may change under the New Disability Benefit.
#4 - Many welfare recipients do not have good relationships with friends or family because their past friends believe in the stigma about welfare recipients, including them. This may reduce the Stigma, but many suspect will not end this stigma in it’s entirety.
So, to be clear, having more money to live on regardless of the source of funds, is not going to work any magic to repair friendships that have ended in every Income Assistance recipients life.
Although more money to live on, after rent and bills are paid, will provide Income Assistance recipients freedom to do some things that will help avoid social isolation.
A few people report that, with more money to live on:
I t will help to get out and socialize which current budgets do not provide.
Most of us will stop attending AA meetings for socialization since we are not alcoholics.
Some of us will stop attending Church Services, to socialize, since we are not Christians.
Many people reported however, that it would not stop them for going to the QEII emergency room for human contact.
When I asked why they basically answered that, even with the new Disability Benefit, we will still live Socially Isolated lives . When our anxiety is up programs like the Canadian Mental Health association Halifax/Dartmouth Branch and Souls Harbour, and, yes, at the QE#2 ER we are around people who understand what we are going through,. Suffering from anxiety, is always going to be an issue regardless of how much more money we have to live on.
But we all agree a better system and more money, will reduce anxiety, and how often we experience it.
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