By Kendall Worth
Having the opportunity to interview Mr. Pine Ridges, (as we will call him) who lives in rural N.S. has given me the opportunity to look at the life of a welfare recipient from a different perspective. I have on a couple of previous occasions written about the stigma faced by a welfare recipient and if you read the piece, or this one, you will see how the stigma is different. Mr. Pine Ridges’ story brings up many question about income assistance recipients living in rural Nova Scotia. The first thought that comes to my mind, is thinking about how much further they are from mental health services, and other services, (food banks, soup kitchens etc.) that are more accessible in Halifax.
I like to ask people who I interview, about life on welfare, 4 questions.
#1 - Tell me a little about what happened that you that ended in the situation of needing welfare, and given that the standard household rate is $950.00 a month , do you agree that this is not enough money to live on?
#2 - Are you currently doing any volunteer work in your community, or since you can make $250.00 and in other cases be allowed to make $350.00 before Welfare starts clawing back, Are you currently supplementing your income with part time employment?
#3 - Taking into consideration living on a small income, how do you describe day-to-day life for you? For example: Do you get outdoors, get any exercise, or go to any mental health groups, etc?
#4 - Do you experience welfare and/or mental health stigma from from friends and family members, and/or have you had friendships end because you are on welfare?
Anything-else that you want to talk about relating to your life on welfare?
I asked “Mr Pine Ridge” who lives in rural Nova Scotia (although as usual both name and location are hidden to avoid any retaliation from DCS or community at large) to answer my usual questions and he did so in writing – in detail.
It was a real pleasure interviewing Mr Pine Ridge. The following has been slightly edited for length, clarity, and repetition.
Mr Pine Ridge in his own words:
First off I am blown away by your blog -- so many points hit home, and showed me just how bad things are despite the fact that I am used to living on a meagre income. I cannot begin to express how much I appreciate, and feel both relieved and hopeful for my life and situation just by you being willing to connect with me. It is hard to feel hope when the system is designed to keep people isolated (aside from my own personal isolation issues which I'll get into below). What I want to see is people who depend on income assistance to unionize! Connecting us all in a profound way so we can all share rights, and fight for one another as a unit and hold DCS accountable. But I've been wary of who to tell that to so it wouldn't leak out in case those in power want to quickly make it illegal or some such (if that isn't already the case).
#1: I grew up in an exceedingly violent and abusive family, baptist christian/military, that left me with cPTSD, general anxiety, depression, and dissociative issues, that, I can recall off of the top of my head. I live in a perpetual state of disassociation, where I see it like a throttle where it can be 1, or can be 100, or anything in between. I was traumatized since I was an infant: from the constant death threats, beatings and other violations of my bodily autonomy. These things led to me being disabled, from the trauma I live with, to this day, despite therapy and medication. I've made momentous strides but it's never enough to be a functioning member of society.
My local DCS office claims (backed up here) that the income types are Board (that I personally call the Reduced Rate) of $608/month, Rent income (I call this the Standard Rate) of $686/month, and the Enhanced Rate of $950/month that is for disabled folks like myself -- and DCS's aggressively stated claims that this is how the system is defined by the Standard Household Rate. I have re-titled them, since the policies under those forms of income do not match their namesakes, and it works more smoothly to fit with the naming convention for disability income. e.g. A formal boarding house nets people rent income, but renting from a small poor land owner gets the reduced rate under the claim of boarding. An Eligibility Review Officer told me twice, that because of policy, DCS is under no obligation to honour my living arrangement, which enforces the statement I've made that DCS only has authority over income, not people's living arrangements. [In fact, things like the spouse in the house rule do impact legally on people’s living arrangements – Editor] Especially considering the moment someone doesn't depend on IA, their 'authority' over living situations instantly evaporates and it defaults to the signed agreement. As far as I am concerned, the difference between 'board' and 'rent' incomes are the same defined differences between small poor landowner vs. big wealthy landowners/government institutions.
DCS Policy“Board”… means where an applicant or recipient lives with the owner or sole lessee of a home, has their own bedroom and shares access to a bathroom, kitchen, entrance or other area of the home;
“Rent”…. “rent” means where an applicant or recipient:
a. is a signatory to lease agreement and lives in a self-contained unit with a separate entrance and a private bathroom, kitchen and living area, or
b. lives in a room in municipally approved or licensed rooming, boarding, or lodging house;
And of course the disability Enhanced Rate is only given if DCS acknowledges a person as a renter, and is disabled.
My more immediate situation is: that I once lived in the HRM renting from place to place, receiving my Enhanced Rate of $950, but due to this ridiculous housing crisis, manufactured by greed of members of government and their corporate landlord friends, I was going to wind up on the street. That was much to the delight of the sociopathic property manager of the last place I lived in. I narrowly avoided it by renting a partial apartment from a small poor landowner 200+ km’s from Halifax. A long move yes, but I'm alive and kept most of my belongings as a result.. as few in number as they are. The lease agreement I signed is $700/month including everything (without food, cleaning and so on) which is a steal, compared to the unnecessary costs spreading across the nation (and other places in the world). It is written into the lease that my landlord is not responsible for taking care of me, and that I must prepare my own food, clean up after myself and to coexist independently within the common areas I've always shared with anyone I've ever lived with during my decade of depending on Income Assistance.
Figuring out housing is a puzzle!
But, due to the singular technicality that I share two common areas with my landlord - kitchen and bathroom, - DCS adamantly claims I am a Boarder, and refuse to look at it any other way. When I moved, the Halifax caseworker who helped me move over to a different office, gave me the full $950 for my first month being there. The new office, made a different determination, declared an over payment and they have been taking the overpayment out of every cheque - $15/month - likely for the next couple years. Now my income is $593/month to pay for $700/month in rent, to pay for my bills, and afford food. They sentence me to homelessness no matter what I do to avoid it, but luckily my landlord refused to kick me out, citing that it was “a very dirty play”. So, now I pay $500 of my income to rent, the rest to bills where I would be lucky to be left with $30-$50 each month, and BEG my long distance and international community to buy and ship me food, so I can stay alive. This has been going on since April 1st 2022, and I have been fighting for my life, against DCS, since. They have been leading me by the nose in circles trying to wear me down into giving up. Giving up is what the process of wearing me down is designed to achieve. Just investigating to see if policy is being followed, and if policy is in violation of legislation. No humanity, no consideration for my situation.. just petty, violent cruelty. Bad faith dealings, and playing dirty throughout the entire process.
Is $950/month enough? Any income that does not adjust with inflation and increasing costs of living is not an income, but a means of keeping people, coerced and barely alive until they are so desperate to take a job, any job, just to avoid being on such a pittance. I remember it was $850/month years ago, but a politician (who was elected) promised to increase it by $300/month, which would not have been enough, but it was something. Well he was fought so hard that the increase was only $100. This demonstrates the crystal-clear intent to keep people down - in pain, hungry and as cold as possible, being the virtuous ideal.
#2: I am not really doing much with my local community I am constantly reaching out to as many entities as possible trying to get DCS in the spotlight, and investigated, in the hopes of either getting justice or change. I have reached out to political parties too, who've soundly ignored me so far. Questions and investigation would set a precedence that would help the lives of people impacted by the cruelty of DCS. They do not pressure me to find employment and have more or less abandoned me, ignoring me save for just sending my income. My ongoing disability is clear to them. But they still threaten me with withholding my income if I do not perform properly when they want something from me.
I did not know, until Kendall pointed it out, that DCS could only begin clawing back income beyond $250/$350/month. I believed that if I got a penny, or dollar above what they gave me, it would be clawed back dollar for dollar. More of my rights that the Department of Gatekeeping kept from me.
#3: Day to day life? Torment, fear, distress, pain and being cowed constantly by DCS. All of that is compounded by a system set up to worsen people's mental and physical health. It has me, figuratively speaking trapped in a fetal position in endless pain and distress, unable to move or function. Outside of that, my time and energy is focused on trying to cope with my trauma; distractions are important: the company of friends, to games and so on. I am only beginning to reach out to local communities, as my life, my main community (99%) is exclusively online. I am (or was?) a ghost, but being forced from that fogged, fugue existence to fight to even stay alive. That’s the reason I am learning my rights, slowly but surely, from tenancy rights to basic human rights when dealing with DCS, their ever growing list of human rights violations, and subtle possibly illegal activities they engage in to keep the boot on my (and other people's) necks. I'm constantly in fear for my life because of how they treat me, but I am also enraged.
#4: When I moved to Halifax I cut all ties to my blood relations, as they were toxic, their treatment of me was slowly killing me; so I am alone in the world save for my friends. I spend so much time in front of my computer trying to stay connected, that I am as isolated as a person can get, almost. The only local friends, as few and rare as they are, are fellow LGBTQ+ people, some of whom “dip into” poor and disabled folks. Due to my life growing up, I am extremely careful and slow to make friends, to vet them, and have no issues cutting ties to people who turn out to be toxic. So I've lucked out in almost exclusively surrounding myself with a healthy community of people who don't give me issues for depending on welfare. Or if they have, it must have gone over my fog-addled head.
Anything else I'd like to share..?
Well yes. Plenty. I didn't even cover everything in my fight with DCS, but I'll leave that for later. For now I'll share links to content and information that I have come across thanks to my varied communities.
Welfare Rights guide that I keep forgetting even exists, and apparently the amounts in it are outdated but generally still applicable.
an article done by the Washington Post regarding the path the Federal Government of Canada is heading down, which engages in rights violations of disabled Canadian citizens via the use of MAiD. Inside that article is a [link] to the special rapporteur done by the United Nations regarding how our rights are being violated without a care in the world by the Canadian governments. A [link] to another UN report. I have added these as they directly impact and threaten the more long term future of disabled Canadians like myself, despite the fight for a disability basic income that is currently ongoing. This adds more fear and stress into my already exceedingly difficult life.
I'll just end with this for now, as I can go into more detail later, if people are interested. I am sorry this turned more into a rant, than merely answering the presented questions. I'm a stickler for context.
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