By Kendall Worth!
This initiative opened with a series of community consultations - from which the graphic above comes. It highlights the fact that the starting point of the Transformation Initiative was THE CLIENTS, - their needs and issues. Not the needs and issues of The System.
Unfortunately, the Transformation project was cancelled shortly after Tim Houston’s PC Government came to power in 2021.
As a long-standing critic of the ESIA program – and an advocate for its wholesale reform – I was at first excited by the promise of the Transformation initiative. It is fair to say that the McNeil Government talked more about transformation than they ever acted upon. And the current Government seems to want the initiative to be considered dead and buried. Different elements of the initiative are occasionally discussed, - like the raising of benefit levels or the tweaking of program criteria. But no one today seems to be ready to actually champion the TRANSFORMATION of the ESIA program, as I believe is needed.
As
my regular readers will know, the ESIA Transformation initiative is an issue
close to my heart and I have written about it many times over the years,
starting with articles in the Nova
Scotia Advocate while the project was still underway. And for the many
years since, here in this BLOG.
So I will admit that I was disappointed to see that the NS NDP did not address this issue directly at their recent Policy Convention, which I attended in May and have written about in recent BLOGs. There were multiple resolutions on the Convention floor that addressed different elements of the ESIA program, but there was no commitment to a broad review and transformation of the entire system. Perhaps I will need to put forward such a Resolution at the next Convention, proposing that a newly elected NDP Government revive the unfinished business of ESIA transformation that was left behind by the McNeil Government.
I do not want to imply that no changes or improvements have been made in recent years.
Some
preliminary reforms had been introduced by the Liberals: Examples include:
•
Some of the bureaucratic nonsense attached to different
benefits was reduced, eliminating the need to always provide proof to a caseworker
for every benefit.
•
Some
of the claw backs related to self-employment were also reduced, as reported in this article.
•
The
Dept of Community Services stopped clawing back Child Support from Income
Assistance payments, as reported here. (On this item, let me
acknowledge the central role that my late friend and colleague Tim Blades played
in securing this win – see here.)
• In 2020, the Standard Household rate came into effect, which was helpful as explained here. And during the short term of the Ian Rankin government, the Standard Household Rate was increased from $850 to $950 a month.
Following
the scrapping of the entire Transformation project when the PCs came to power, the
Houston Government have also made some modest steps forward on a couple of
fronts:
•
In
April 2024, eligible Income Assistance recipients started receiving a brand
new Disability Supplement;
• And as reported here, IA rates were given an annual increase tied to the rate of inflation. Which did not translate into significant changes, but provided a modest benefit in the face of inflation.
I believe that it is important to acknowledge these small steps, even if their impact is very modest indeed. But it remains important to keep our eyes on the Big Prize, - all the “unfinished” business left incomplete by the cancellation of the Transformation process.
But
there are many long-awaited changes that have NOT yet happened: A REAL transformation
project would start by not just listening to ESIA clients, - but HEARING
them, too. I have written about this
issue
before, - how the voices of people on “benefits” are never actually heard even
when they are “consulted”. This has been the experience of our community on
many issues (see here):
·
Not
least of all with regards to the outrageous annual review process, which remains hugely
problematic.
·
Similarly,
our community has long advocated for the end of EI benefits being clawed back. That remains an issue for many today, as I
have often written about.
·
Community
advocacy for converting ESIA into a form of Guaranteed Basic Income
has also continued to fall on deaf ears within the Government.
·
Discussions
about Community Inclusion for IA recipients have been ongoing for years, but
movement forward has been slow and painful.
·
Similarly,
community pushback against ESIA’s long standing policies with regard to co-habitation
remain a very sore point, as I have addressed repeatedly.
· Ditto for the issue of eligibility for Special Diet Allowances, which remains a sticking point (see here). The impact of this issue on people with disabilities was covered here.
In Conclusion:
If the current Nova Scotia Government, or any future
NS Government for that matter - agrees to put the unfinished Employment Support
and Income Assistance Transformation project back on the table, this will mean
that we are no longer just tweaking ESIA. Transformation will not happen
through a series of small tweaks of rates and criteria.
This process should start at the beginning, - by asking “Why is it that so many Nova Scotians rely on income
assistance in the first place?”
Financial hardship is only part of the picture. Research
has consistently shown that mental health conditions, invisible disabilities,
chronic stress, and social isolation can interact with one another, making it
much more difficult for some individuals to move forward in education,
employment, and community participation. These challenges are often
interconnected rather than existing in isolation. This is illustrated by my own
life story as I shared in this
article. Poverty,
mental health, and invisible disabilities can all create barriers to moving
ahead in life.
Rather than assuming everyone on Income Assistance faces
the same barriers, policy should recognize that people have different needs. If
governments were to better understand the science surrounding these issues,
they might also recognize why policies such as the cohabitation rules within
Nova Scotia's Income Assistance program can create additional hardships for
people whose circumstances are already complex.
Overall, we need a system that genuinely acknowledges the
importance of living with dignity, as I wrote previously. This should include policies and programs
that effectively address issues such as social
isolation. Living on the current Income Assistance
rates—especially during a period of rising inflation— does far more than create
financial hardship. It also limits opportunities for social participation and
make it more difficult to maintain positive mental health. In other words,
inadequate income affects not only a person's ability to survive financially,
but also their ability to participate in community life. This can have a
significant impact on people’s mental and physical well-being, as I have
discussed here.
Our system should stop encouraging the idea that social
isolation is an acceptable way for people to live. Human beings are social by
nature, and research increasingly shows that meaningful social connection is an
important contributor to their physical and mental health. We a system open to exploring
creative
solutions!
I will be frank: at the end of the day, I believe that the
most hopeful path towards transformation of Nova Scotia’s Income Assistance
system will happen ONLY through the introduction of some form of Basic Guaranteed Income.
Getting this proposition onto the table in our Provincial Legislature remains the challenge.
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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