An update on how members of the Disability Community are feeling about the upcoming Disability Benefit!

 By Kendall Worth!

I reported here when the Canadian Disability Benefit was introduced in Sept. 2022 as C-22. For my Full Reporting on Bill C22 see all the posts here.

This Disability Benefit is going to apply to persons with disabilities all across Canada. Meanwhile, I have been having conversations with Persons with Disabilities, right here in Nova Scotia,  who tell me what their expectation for this benefit are, and will be. Their expectations include:

• Quality of Life improvement

• An improved amount and system of Income Support than our provincial system, of Employment Support and Income Assistance, provides.

• A system that better respects Disability Rights

As I pointed out in this post, the first thing they think about is – if we already already had more money to live on than the $950 provided to people with disabilities in Nova Scotia, we could have been living a much better quality of life.

Speaking of Quality life - as this post reports on - A rally took place on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa,  on Wednesday October 19^th, 2022. Persons with Disabilities from Nova Scotia were only able to attend in spirit, which is explained in that post, above.

Sources across Canada tell me different provinces have different programs for people with disabilities. Here in Nova Scotia the only program we have is ESIA -- the Employment Support and Income Assistance program through Department of Community Services. As this group of posts reports, here in Nova Scotia the Income Assistance Standard Rate, that Persons with Disabilities are entitled to, is currently $950.00 a month. Before Summer of 2022 it was $850.00 a month. That is next to nothing to live on. In this post where I invited Federal Minister Carla Qualtrough to look at reality, I also provided a copy of the May tree Report which points out that Welfare (the Slang Name for Income assistance here in Nova Scotia, and in other provinces) rates are not much better in other provinces.

My specialty is reporting on how the Disability community, in Nova Scotia, is feeling about the new disability benefit,  and that is what I bring you in this current BLOG post.

In this Video tweet, MP Bonita Zarrillo talks about how Persons with Disabilities continue to struggle. Even though Bonita Zarrillo is an MP from BC, Nova Scotian's with disabilities can relate to exactly what she is talking about in that video. I say this because a lot of Nova Scotian’s with disabilities have seen this video. Some, I have spoken with directly, tell me they can definitely relate to what Bonita is talking about, and that they relate from their personal, lived experience. While Nova Scotians with disabilities are continuing to wait for this federal Benefit to become reality, they continue to struggle with rent and bills and some even fear joining the homeless population, soon. There is no excuse for Persons with Disabilities to join the homeless population. Nova Scotians with Disabilities are saying that we need a system that respects disability rights, as I have spoken about in many blog posts.

For years and years, in NOva Scotia,  we have lived with an Income Assistance system full of bureaucratic nonsense and systemic issues that made us jump through hoops to qualify for programs and allowances, supposedly “avaiable” through the system. Over the years persons with disabilities have had to depend on a system that never provided enough money to live on.

Quality of Life improvement is what Persons with Disabilities are hoping to gain out of this new Disability Benefit. The current Employment Support and Income Assistance program has provided very little support for years and years, and has always made people suffer. Persons with Disabilities agree that it is high time for a different system of income support. Also People with Disabilities in Nova Scotia remain hopeful that it will not end up containing any disincentive to work.

We continue to hope that better days are ahead!