NDP Government Boosts Income Assistance and Disability Rates
Thursday, July 20, 2017 @ 1:02 PM
Victoria, B.C. – The new NDP government has announced a $100 a month increase in income assistance and disability rates in B.C.
“Lifting families out of poverty starts with raising income assistance rates and assistance for people with disabilities,” says Premier John Horgan. “We’re raising the rates to support people and help them live in dignity.”
Under the Liberal government, the NDP says income assistance rates were frozen for 10 years.
The increase kicks in Sept. 20, 2017. The new monthly rates will be $1,133 for a person receiving disability assistance and $710 for a person on income assistance.
Comments
Yes, increase welfare income and of course no incentive to find a job. NDP and more free handouts while the rest of us have to work for a living.
So I see you would sooner have more people sleeping on the streets and have the local people give more to the food banks so the poor can survive.
So essentially a 14% increase for a person who can work, but for some reason isn’t and 8.8% for a person who can’t work even if they wanted to. Seems wrong to me. I’d give $200.00 to the disabled and $75.00 to the able but unwilling.
So what happens if when he get’s around to calling the legislature, if for some reason not all the NDP make it to the vote and his government falls? Lots of changes for someone who hasn’t even had a sitting yet.
I have hired 3 people in the last few years on disability. There are some types of work they can do
excellent point! at least the non disabled can get out and collect cans. why should they get such an increase as opposed to those with disabilities (both mental and physical)
i think that 100$ a month extra should be contingent upon completion of career counselling or training that improves ones odds of obtaining gainful employment.
good point
So BC has a very high child poverty rate and Clark ignored it for all of her term.. it’s nice to see someone trying to make a difference.
This does nothing to the child poverty rate
This very much does address the child poverty rate, some people have opted to not work to receive social assistance instead as they are further ahead based upon government payment rates then they would be working for an employer that fails to guarantee hours that are pay able.
Child Poverty rate is gauged by Lico and similar measures. 1,200 per year does not raise someone to above the poverty line if they are only on welfare. If your parents are below the poverty line you are a child in poverty.
For rates to affect child poverty they would have to rise over 40 percent and then rents would increase and you are back to square one. A lot of people on social assistance live in subsidized housing which is based on your annual income
I have no difficulty with welfare rates being increased for the disabled, or single Dad or Mom raising kids who for some reason are not employable.
I do have a problem with single men and women who are employable and don’t hold any jobs,getting welfare, getting a raise. Used to be when we raised our welfare rates higher than another province, we’d get an influx of folks coming for the raise. Horgan could empower these single men and women by having them volunteer in different areas and venues,(although some do) but don’t think that will happen.
How does volunteering empower someone?
Gives them a sense of giving back and responsibility.
It’s a chance to network yourself. People see that you are willing to work and can be relied upon. Those people get jobs.
Goodbye any possible budget surplus.
Remember what happened to Lillian’s husband Bill,when he said welfare recipients should work for their dole?
As I recall . A cartoonist got sued by billy wooden shoes for a cartoon ( published ) depicting him pulling the wings off of flies . It was only funny because it was true . As true as it is in this comment section here , today . The hundred dollar increase is a pittance but I smile at the thought of one less child going to bed hungry . Well done John and Andrew , you have my respect .
SOME of those able bodied welfare people Bill Vander Zalm told to “pick up their shovel” and marched in protest down to his nursery business to apply for all the jobs he said existed, and DIDN’T get upstaged when his nursery manager surprised them when he handed out applications and told them they could start work immediately, instead of being turned away, as the organisers of the protest thought they’d be, actually did stick around and were hired and went to work.
A reporter from the Vancouver Sun hung around til the end of their shift, and interviewed one of them. He asked this young fellow, who’d spent all day working to move a pile of compost from one area of the nursery to another by using shovels and wheelbarrows what he thought of his new job.
The young fellow replied that he was glad to have a job; he’d been looking for one for some time and couldn’t get on anywhere. He then mentioned something obvious, or what should’ve been. That what he and his fellow shovellers had been doing all day was really kind of foolish, considering the whole pile of compost could’ve been moved by any ONE of them in less than 10 minutes if they’d been allowed to use the front end loader that sat idle all the time they shovelled! But if they had, they wouldn’t have had jobs, would they?
In other words, we’re often very quick to condemn those who have trouble finding work as all being lazy, shameless, no-accounts that want to sponge off the public purse. When the truth of the matter just might be that a whole lot more jobs are continually being displaced by technology.
Now to be clear, there’s no doubt there ARE some lazy, shameless, no-accounts out there. But ask yourself this. If YOU were an employer would you want such people ‘working’ for you?
I AM an employer; have been one for nearly 50 years now. And I can tell you from personal experience I most certainly would NOT! It’s completely counter-productive. I’d spend more time and effort trying to get some work out of such types than it would take me to do the same work myself.
We don’t NEED their ‘production’, thank God, and in any case we’re certainly not going to ever get it. Far better to just pay them a living stipend and get them out of the way. For we still do need their ‘consumption’ ~ or we wouldn’t be working ourselves.
Why should there not be a drug screening for welfare recipients? Sit at home and do drugs all day = none of my taxes. Drive the VLA and you will see what 75% of the welfare recipients are up to. See the previous story with the 2 dirt bags breaking into cars? I hope they enjoy the extra $100 I will be giving them!
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