Those on welfare are feeling overlooked
Ian Morrison says his money doesn’t last as long as it used to.
Morrison is a Regina comic whose non-profit, HealingThroughHumour, gives people with mental illnesses a platform to express themselves through comedy.
Morrison lives with OCD, ADHD and depression and depends on government disability benefits to pay bills. He’s making ends meet, but since the pandemic began, costs are rising.
“It (the money) doesn’t last as long as it used to, because of things you didn’t foresee in your budget,” he said, mentioning the cost of cleaning supplies. “It can be a little scary.”
Some advocates worry that people on provincial welfare programs, like Morrison, are being overlooked in the broader financial response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While many people who have lost employment are eligible for a $2,000 monthly payment from the federal government’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), people on provincial welfare programs have received only $50 in addition to their usual benefits, the result of a one-time $2 million investment from the Ministry of Social Services.
In a previous interview with The Starphoenix, Social Services Minister Paul Merriman said it was an acknowledgment that people face extra costs, adding that the amount was sufficient because people on welfare had not lost income.
Dave Nelson, a board member of the Canadian Mental Health Association and a member of the Saskatchewan Disability Income Support Coalition, said many people on the province’s disability programs may rely on supplemental income streams like part-time or seasonal work to make ends meet. He said some may also face much greater costs now associated with protective equipment, transportation and loss of some community services.
“I think people with disabilities are in the same boat as many of us,” Nelson said. “If you’re able to keep your job, there’s some extra costs. But if you’ve lost your job, people are scrambling and trying to figure out how to deal with that.”
Nicole Rancourt, the NDP critic for social services, said the $50 benefit is a “good gesture” but argued provincial benefits were not sufficient in the first place. She noted British Columbia has bumped up disability and income support benefits by $300 for the months of April, May and June to address the pandemic.
“The one-time benefit does not meet the need of these people as the pandemic goes on,” Rancourt said.
AIDS Saskatoon executive director Jason Mercredi said he and other staff on the city’s inter-agency response have been helping clients fill out applications for provincial welfare benefits, but his worry is that some might apply for the CERB even though they don’t qualify. They’ll still receive the money, under federal policy, but the money could later be clawed back through cuts to other payments or increased taxes in the long term.
In a statement, executive director of income assistance delivery Jeff Redekop said the ministry is encouraging people to apply for the CERB if they’re eligible. He said 2,900 more households had begun to receive core income assistance benefits from the province between February and April, an eight per cent overall increase that was greater than the same period from the previous year but not statistically significant.