By Kendall Worth
To begin, I want to remind readers,
as background, that, this Government
New Release,
about “New
Approach to Employment Supports for Income Assistance Recipients”
was made Public on August 11th
2026.
I want to also remind readers that my reporting comes directly from the First Voice Perspective, from people who are receiving Income Assistance. This post was not written immediately after the news was released, because I wanted to take some time to talk to First Voice Income Assistance recipients, (who I personally know) to get feedback on this news.
By the way, before getting into the meat and potatoes, of the response from First Voice IA Recipients to this news, I want to point out, first, that at least two news outlets reported on this.
Here is a report from CBC news and one from the Halifax Examiner. Unlike those news outlets the analysis and discussion on my BLOG comes directly from the experiences of First Voice AI recipients. For anyone who is new to reading my BLOG, or does not understand what I mean by “first voice perspective” I invite you to educate yourself on what I mean by having a look at these posts, and learning.
Several First Voice who I have spoken in the community reveal that this news makes them wonder if the Nova Scotia Government did any research and consulting with the community, before they made this August 11th 2026 announcement?
First Voice community members, I have spoken to since the announcement, are asking themselves this question, because this was never discussed during the time of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Transformation, under the former Steven McNeil Government. Every First Voice I spoke to, agrees with me, that if the Transformation was still on the table under the current Tim Houston Government, then Tim Houston is taking an 180 degree turn in transforming the system from the original 2017 ESIA Transformation direction.
In addition, every First Voice who I spoke to about this news is saying there is no way this new approach is going to get rid of Stigma, the very thing people need to increase their chances at employment. The government is not paying attention to what needs to be done to get rid of Stigma, against “people on welfare”, and First Voice, who I spoke with, are asking the following Questions:
What are the services provided by the Nova Scotia Works Centres going to do, to help increase understanding of invisible disabilities in the community ,and especially in workplaces?
What are the services provided by the Nova Scotia Works Centres going to do to stop Income Assistance recipients from feeling and behaving like they are forced introverts because of their social and economic circumstances, as I wrote about here and here?
All First Voice I spoke to agree, that the services provided by the Nova Scotia Works Centres is going to do nothing to fix what the system of receiving income assistance, does to encourage Social Isolation, as I have written about extensively. The question First Voice are asking themselves is: Are the staff of the Nova Scotia Works Centres going to even consider Social Isolation?
And how are these changes going to affect those on Income Assistance who already have a Part-time Job?
The answer to all of these questions are NO, and and they will do nothing.
Every First Voice I have spoken with about this news, agree that the way we will get rid of stigma is through the existence of a Livable Basic Guaranteed Income. However, as reported in this BLOG post ,Nova Scotia is not even looking at this at present. While in conversations directly with First Voice, this article published back in 2017, came up. In that article, I note that grouping Income Assistance recipients is an unacceptable approach toward income assistance clients. Some First Voice I spoke with, called info in the news release an example of “Grouping”, because according to Income Assistance Staff the client might be ready to go back, or enter work. But they need to be thinking deeper when establishing whether, the client is really ready to go back to work? What work?
Then First Voice have mentioned another question. Is the staff at the Nova Scotia Works Centres going to have the expertise to determine whether or not the client is ready to go back to work? This is expertise held by the 85 Employment Support workers who are are about to lose their jobs.
Some First-Voice people I spoke with about this recent news, told me that they see these changes as yet another example of why it was so important for the voices of people actually receiving Income Assistance be heard during any change to policy or implementation of the Employment Support and Income Assistance (ESIA) system.
Concerns raised in this article, from years ago, asked whether First-Voice people were genuinely being listened to during any significant change or transformation process. When the voices of people who actually depend on Income Assistance are not adequately heard, there is a danger that government officials and employment-support providers will misunderstand the barriers, fears and anxiety that some clients experience.
One thing that staff working within the new approach need to understand is that being capable of some form of employment does not mean a person is capable of doing any job that happens to be available. This is especially important when talking about people with disabilities, including people with invisible disabilities. Someone can be considered able to work while still having limitations involving anxiety, communication, concentration, sensory environments, transportation, workplace stress, scheduling, social interaction or other disability-related needs. Two people who are both placed under a broad category such as "work-ready" can have completely different abilities, barriers and support needs.
This is where First-Voice concerns about grouping people according to perceived ability to work also need to be taken seriously. People receiving Income Assistance are individuals. They should not simply be divided into categories and then treated as though everybody within a particular category has the same employment abilities or needs. An assessment that somebody is capable of employment should be the beginning of an individualized conversation about what kind of employment is realistic and sustainable for that person—not the end of that conversation.
There is also a concern within the First-Voice community that, through referrals to Nova Scotia Works Centres, people could feel pressured to apply for or accept the first job that might hire them. For example, a person may not want to work at the first fast-food restaurant that has an opening. That does not automatically mean the person is lazy, unwilling to work or unwilling to become more financially independent.
We need to ask why a particular job may not be appropriate. Does the person's disability make that workplace difficult or unsustainable? Are there sensory, communication or anxiety-related barriers? Does the person need particular accommodations? Is transportation available for the required shifts? Does the job match the person's abilities? Does the person have career interests, education or employment goals that they are trying to pursue? Could pushing the person into an unsuitable job result in that employment quickly breaking down and leaving the person back where they started?
This is also why I question whether changing where people receive employment services will, by itself, eliminate stigma. Stigma is not eliminated simply by sending Income Assistance recipients through the same employment centres as everybody else. Stigma is reduced when the people working within these systems, and society more broadly, understand that there are many legitimate reasons why somebody may have difficulty finding or maintaining employment.
If the goal is truly to help Income Assistance recipients obtain meaningful and sustainable employment, then success cannot simply be measured by how quickly someone gets hired. We also need to ask whether the employment is appropriate for that individual, whether necessary accommodations and supports are available, whether the person is being listened to, and ultimately whether they are able to maintain that employment over the long term.
Most importantly, First Voice needs to be a part of this conversation. Policies intended to remove employment barriers should not be designed around assumptions about people receiving Income Assistance. They need to be informed by the people who actually live with those barriers every day.
I will end this post by saying that governments have got to start to listening to First Voice on the ground. Some First Voice I spoke with, about this August 11th news release, also brought up that this new policy provides reasons why the BRAG Group, or a union of people living in poverty, need to rebirth. I talked about this need, in this post.
So it turns out, moving forward, Income Assistance clients needs to be prepared to expect the unexpected with what-ever is going to happen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~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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