By Kendall Worth!
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| Sign Reads: I am visiting a park located next to Armdale Rotary. Look in the background. We have rich able bodied people in this province who own yachts and sailboats, yet this province expects persons with disabilities to live on next to nothing, which encourages social isolation. Shame! |
In all my interviews and writing over the years, I have written a lot about people with disabilities who cannot work because of their disabilities. In some cases they are able to hold down Part-time jobs with light tasks, however, most are not able to work full-time. The sad truth is that the Income Assistance rates have not always been the current $950.00 standard household rate, or the current $609.00 for folks deemed employable. In the past Income Assistance rates have been a lot less. The reason why I choose the photo I am using for this BLOG post is because it should be the right of people with disabilities to live the same quality life as the able-bodied community, as I have often written about. That small amount to live on also limits resources avail;able to deal with their mental health day-to-day . Relaxation is good for mental health.
Over the years of reporting on the lives of people with disabilities, many tell me they have missed out of much privilege as a result of being encouraged to live life socially isolated. This picture I am using in this BLOG post is not only about the yachts and sail boats in the background, clearly owned by rich people in this city, but about those left behind. This picture shows one of many examples of what quality of life could look like for many with Disabilities if they had of been provided through the system of receiving income support.
With being provided with enough money to live on throughout all of these years; that the income assistance rates in Nova Scotia has never been enough to live on right from the GECKO of when the Employment Support and Income Assistance program was created, life could have better for them.
In other BLOG posts I have written about Basic Livable Income and also about the upcoming federal Disability Benefit. The update on the disability benefit is that will be another 12 to 16 months before this will be becoming available to Canadians with disabilities who will qualify for it. In the meantime achieving improvement of disability rights is what builds the case for Basic Income.
Persons with Disabilities living in poverty, that I am regularly in touch with, tell me that they dream about relaxing activities. It is something they all dream of and want access to, but 99% of time in day-to-day life, miss out on. Hopefully, the upcoming federal disability benefit will change their quality of life for the better. We all wonder whether these healthy able-bodied people, who own the sail boats and yachts, actually know about our system of income assistance, and support it? According the view of the Disability Community they know nothing. Otherwise. They would, like others, be outraged at the position of people with disabilities and everyone on income assistance.
In the past I have written extensively about social isolation and loneliness, and its impact on health both physical and mental. It seems to the general community of people living in poverty that the people who can afford to own those yachts and sail boats probably can afford lots of help to manage any mental health issues they have, and do not have to worry much about social isolation. But the question of mystery is, is this really true?
Why is it, I want to ask, that we have rich people in this province who own yachts and yet this province says that they cannot afford to raise Income Assistance to a livable amount? These same rich people in this province who own those Yachts also live in multi million dollar homes.
Maybe it is time those who own the yachts, and govern for them, experience what it is like to live on income assistance for a couple of months. Maybe after they have the opportunity to experience this the maybe we will get their support.
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