An Open Letter to Nova Scotia MP’s:
Written on behalf of the Disability Community in Nova Scotia!
Re: Asking our Local MP’s to continue to support Bill C22!
By Kendall Worth!
Dear; Darren Fisher, Andy Fillmore, Darrell Samson, and other Local Nova Scotia MP’s;
My name is Kendall Worth and I am writing to you today is because I am an advocate for people living in poverty, in Halifax Nova Scotia. Lately on my BLOG, I have been writing about the Disability Benefit. To bring you up to Speed see: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/disability%20benefit .
Prior to October 2021, I wrote in the NS Advocate https://nsadvocate.org/author/kendall-worth/ until the passing of it’s publisher Robert Devet. Please read through this link for many examples of the current system’s effect on persons with disabilities in Nova Scotia.
I am very Sure you know the relationship between the Disability Benefit and Disability Rights -- they go hand in hand. My advocacy work includes advocating for Disability rights. See my previous blog posts on the issue: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/disability%20rights
Some, if not many, Nova Scotians with disabilities would like to be in Ottawa watching the hearings which have started, according the following tweets::
and this one:
Some, if, not many Persons With Disabilities, in Nova Scotia, would like to be present in Ottawa for these hearings. But as I talked about in this recent post https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/10/nova-scotia-disability-community-will.html being present is not possible for many Persons with Disabilities who live in Nova Scotia. The Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) Program, here in Nova Scotia, provides them a living allowance of $950.00 and income from other sources get clawed back. So people are poor, as my blog post (linked above) explains. I ask that you please click on the link above to provide yourself with an understanding of what I am getting at. After receiving their monthly allowance of $950.00 , then paying rent and bills, and after groceries and personal hygiene products are bought, it’s not hard for you to see there is nothing left to live on. Because the Disability Benefit has passed second reading, many in Nova Scotia are living life in hope that something better is on it’s way.
Darren Fisher, Andy Fillmore, Darrell Samson, and other Local Nova Scotia MP’s in Nova Scotia, via this letter, the Disability Community in Nova Scotia is asking and hoping that you will speak to the Committee on their behalf.
The points, that Nova Scotians with disabilities, want raised at these Committee hearings are:
• The Disability Benefit should be providing persons with disabilities something above and beyond the $950.00 a month that our current ESIA program through Department of Community Services provides. The suggested amount for living allowance is the same $2000 a month that CERB provided during it’s short lived time.
• The Disability Benefit should not be a disincentive for people to work at a part-time job. Some who I suspect will qualify for the Disability Benefit, in Nova Scotia, do already have part-time jobs, and they should not have to quit their jobs to qualify for the Disability Benefit. I should mention that those In Nova Scotia are currently allowed to keep the first $250.00; or some, qualify for for “Supportive Employment” are allowed to keep the first $350.00 of their earnings before it gets clawed back from our income assistance cheques.
• Everyone I talked to agreed, that should two people qualify for the benefit, and want to live together in a romantic relationship, they should be able to do so, without penalty. In Nova Scotia Income Assistance caseworkers have a policy manual they have to follow when they make decisions about benefits for Income Assistance recipients. Section 6.1.8 of this policy manual prevents and discourages anyone on Income Assistance living together in supportive, romantic relationships. For more, see: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/05/cohabitation-and-social-assistance.html and https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/05/part-ii-cohabitation-and-618-of-esia.html . The Disability Benefit should not repeat a similar policy! This type of relationship is a right, not a privilege.
• The final point I want to make is the bureaucratic non-sense and systemic problems of Department of Community Services, which I have written about extensively. For a major example of Community Services systemic problems and bureaucratic non-sense see https://nsadvocate.org/2017/02/28/kendall-worth-my-caseworker-questioning-my-doctor-is-a-human-rights-violation/ and for proof that it is still happening today in Nova Scotia see https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/09/ia-caseworkers-still-want-to-question.html which outlines a recent situation.
The disability community is looking forward, with hope, to a new system that will not repeat the problems outlined in my linked posts. Enough money to live is all about paying bills, paying rent and eating healthy, then some freedom to keep out of social isolation.
I will end this by asking you as our local MP’s to please continue to show your support for Bill C22t
Your Truly;
Persons with disabilities In Nova Scotia!
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