By Kendall Worth!
On the evening of Monday September 11th 2023 I met with a group of first voice Income Assistance recipients. Those I met with I met with that evening do not want to be identified. The reason that they gave me is fear of stigma from people in their personal lives. Like many on Income assistance they suffer with people believing myths and stereotypes about them, and they need to protect themselves from harassment from those people. A couple of them referenced this article saying they fear that is going to happen to us as a result. Throughout this post I emphasize how Income Assistance rates remain very low, the homeless population continues to increase and worsen, and inflation continues to make day-to-day life harder. No one is speaking up for us. These Income assistance recipients said everyone is frustrated that no-one is speaking up, by organizing protests about this.
This group of 5 income assistance recipients came to me and wanted to talk about how hard life is becoming for them and for all income assistance recipients. They are all receiving the standard $950.00 a month. A couple of them said they do receive special diet allowances. Also 3 of them receive the special needs telephone allowance. They have all indicated to me that they are at risk of becoming homeless if nothing is done soon. They complained that:
The Tim Houston Government, elected in 2021, has done nothing to continue the ESIA transformation.
The standard House Hold Rate remains $950.00 a month and, if considered employable, you receive only $609.00 a month.
Inflation continues to play a negative part in how they live day-to-day.
The bureaucratic nonsense and systemic problems at Department of Community Services still EXISTS.
The homeless population continues to increase.
I asked these 5 income assistance recipients how I can speak up when the next opportunity for me to speak will be the next Basic Income Conference which is not until October 2024?
They touched on their feelings about how no-one is speaking out for us and the issues we face.
They expressed their frustration that no one is doing anything to form a union of people living in poverty which I wrote about here. but did not seem to have any interest in doing so themselves, although all agreed it would be the most ideal thing.
This post points out that myself and Arron Spidle spoke at the Basic Income Conference in April 2023. Everyone agrees that we need some help from established groups to get a union of people living in poverty started, as I wrote about here. I quote from that article:
“We are facing many crises right now – income, inflation, housing, climate, and an unjust justice system... just to name a few. At the bottom of an income pile where wages are too low, and even jobs that once supported a middle class (think Educational assistants, support workers and library techs) no longer can pay for basic food and housing. Imagine then the condition of people on income assistance that are trying to live on even less. Most commonly $950/mo. income assistance does not even reach the level of the "poverty line" but is well below it.”
At that interview the five asked: Why is no one doing anything for us? That seems to be how everyone in my community is feeling.
So, in the rest of this post, I attempt to answer them.
When Benefits Reform Action Existed, if it was not for the Second Voice members like the Social Worker from the North end Community Health Center or the Person from Dal Legal Aid, or CCPA loaning their skills and resources then we would have never been to organize the actions we did. Other people, no matter how compassionate or empathetic are not necessarily taking on this issue. The activists, already incredibly busy dealing with the crisis I mentioned (housing, income, inflation etc.), do not have time for prioritizing our issue, but they do have resources and we can organize to ask for a share. I know it is frustrating that no opportunity for me to speak on behalf of Income Assistance recipients, available at the moment until the Basic Income Conference in 2024, but we need to start something! 4 of us have been working on Alltogether Link – the project to mitigate social isolation – and understand why a public event to present life on welfare is needed, but we are already up to our eyeballs in organizing work.
Organizations that exist to organize workers, or do research or lobby for changes to minimum wage and labour standards do not address Income Assistance rates and it is not their forte. They are interested in, and allies of poverty related issues, and they are are all concerned about the Income Assistance rates. We need to organize ourselves enough to ask for money and resources to to start organizing a campaign – with events, petitions, lobbying and protests. Then we can go after some of the organizations in the city where there are well organized activists who have the ability to help us with resources.
https://nsaccw.org/
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