By Kendall Worth
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| On Income Assistance you are NOT expected to thrive, why? |
As is my usual practice, I am calling these interview subjects: Mis – Sam and Amanderia (Not their real names) They choose these names because these are not names you would not normally name Human Beings. Both of them are income assistance recipients and they figure that by using these names, people who believe in stigma about them, will not be able to identify them.
Mis – Sam and Amanderia contacted me back in October 2025, and suggested that I, interview them as two Income Assistance Recipients who have reason to consider themselves part of “the lucky few” I often call the “Lucky twenty percent” of people who have relationships in their lives.
Through my journalism, I report on how the polices of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Program (ESIA) here in Nova Scotia, encourage people living in poverty, that their life of social isolation is just fine. This post will draw your attention to other links and stories.
Many, who I advocate for through my BLOG, are living on $1022.00 per month as pointed out in this post. Then, as I report in this post, the Income Assistance rates have increased over the last few years. In the past they were less, and we know that Income Assistance has never provided enough to live on. Although I divide the community living in poverty into lucky (20%) and unlucky/lonely (80%,) I must clarify that these numbers are only a guess, although there are reasons why included in this link. As pointed out in this post, these statistics are very difficult to research or prove. To sum up the differences of what I mean between the 80% and 20% is:
The 80% are the ones who live their day-to-day life socially isolated except when they are at Food-Banks and Soup-Kitchens. They have either zero, or next to nothing, in social relationships and connection to people and community.
The 20% are the ones who do have other people in their personal lives (beyond Soup kitchen and food bank lines) who they socialize with, or found creative ways, within their $1022 allowance per month, (or less) to have social connection in their personal lives.
Before getting into reporting on the situation of Mis – Sam and Amanderia, there is more I want to emphasize about social isolation. Whether in the 80% or 20%, it should be clear that ALL ESIA clients live in the same financial system and situation. This means that they do not have the resources to regularly go, to bars, restaurants or movies, for example. Here’s more on what a 20% Lucky income assistance recipient is:
Someone who is on Income Assistance who has invisible disabilities, for example, autism, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities, ADHD, etc. and their families did see and confront this while they were growing up. The families of these income assistance recipients are very likely to stay in a positive relationship with them during their adult life. They are part of the 20% that I call “the lucky ones”. Bob, as reported on here, got diagnosed with autism, in his late 40’s. It would appear that those who do not get diagnosed until their adult years usually end up in the (unproven) 80% not-so-lucky group.
Those who have found creative ways to within what is currently $1022/mo and historically was much less, to have social connections, and friends, in their personal Lives. They make these Social Connections through things like A church they are involved with, A support group they may attend in their community, or through Volunteer work they are involved with.
Those who come from families where the family members do not believe in the usual stigma applied to welfare recipients like: They are on income assistance only because they are lazy and just do not want to work.
Now to get into the situation of Mis – Sam and Amanderia.
During my interview with them they agreed that I am pretty close with my 20% and 80% figures. They expressed how sad they were about the 80% figure. They assume the guess is close to the mark, from seeing the large numbers of people lining up at food-banks and soup-kitchens. Along the way I have spoken to many First voice income assistance recipients, you can see much of that here.
Mis – Sam gets the $1022.00 standard household rate, plus the $324.00 disability supplement, plus a $330.00 rental subsidy, plus $54.00 for 2 special diets, plus $40.00 telephone this = $1770.00 per month. So subtracting her $1100.00 rent from $1770.00 = $670.00 left. $54.00 for special diet and $40.00 for telephone has to go directly onto those needs. So subtracting $54.00, then $40.00 from $670.00, = only having $576.00 left for groceries and personal hygienic products. One way that she is lucky is her power is included in her rent. Not very many landlords include power in their rents. However, I want to point our that it is not the fact that her power is included in her rent that she considers herself one of the lucky income assistance recipients. What makes her one of the lucky ones… is Mis – Sam is one of those income assistance recipients who has been able to maintain a friendship with a childhood friend, who does not believe in the stigma about welfare, does not even care why Mis – Sam is even on income assistance in the first place. For Mis – Sam it is limited to just one friend. Many of their other people in Mis – Sam’s life share stigma beliefs about her. These articles, here and here provide the reasons why many of them are not so lucky, as to have the ability to keep in touch with childhood friends.
Amanderia gets the $1022 standard house hold rate plus the $324.00 disability supplement, plus $315.00 rental supplement. Then she gets $81.00 a month for 3 special diets and the $40.00 telephone allowance. This = $1782.00 per month. Then, her rent is $1025.00 per month, so, subtracting that $1025 for her rent = $757.00. Then with $81.00 going directly onto her special diet needs then $40.00 going onto her phone that = $636.00 left. In her case, she does not live within walking distance from a grocery store or pharmacy. She can take the bus using her bus pass, to where she needs to go, but she needs to take a taxi home because her groceries, etc are too heavy to bring on a bus. So out of that $636.00 another $25.00 comes out of that for cab ride home on the day she does those errands. So that = her having $611.00 left for everything-else. Amanderia is one of the 20% lucky income assistance recipients because she is connected to a church. She does have people who she keeps as social contacts through her church, even though she does not attend services every Sunday. She is lucky because, for many (who are part of the unproven 80% ) do not have people who keep in touch with them, outside of food banks and soup kitchens.
One of the reasons that they are able to count themselves lucky is that they found each other in a soup kitchen line up even though each of them only goes once or twice a week. They discovered they already knew each other from their early childhood years and they reconnected when they started seeing each other at soup-kitchens. Within the past year they stopped going to the soup-kitchens but continued going to their food-bank. During this interview both told me that they have worked at part time jobs in the past, but they found they could not handle anything they have ever tried. They both have invisible disabilities.
Moving forward, they are both, along with many other Income Assistance recipients, hoping someday we will have better system in Nova Scotia.
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Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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