BC Government Emergency Financial Aid Still Leaves People on Income and Disability Assistance Below Poverty LineOn April 2, BC's Social Development and Poverty Reduction Minister Shane Simpson announced that the provincial government would be providing a $300 per month "crisis supplement" for three months during the COVID-19 pandemic. Simpson said the supplement will go to 205,000 British Columbians on income and disability assistance, and 58,000 low-income seniors. This comes to a total of $78 million, out of an amount of $1.1 billion the province has designated in financial support measures (announced on March 23), to assist people whose income has been affected, assistance with rent, a pause in the payment of student loans and assistance for those unable to pay monthly bills. For the next three months, those on basic income assistance will now receive $1,060, while those on disability assistance will receive $1,428. A single parent with two kids on disability receives $1,609 a month, for a total of $1,909 with the supplement. Notably, the emergency supplement still leaves people on income and disability assistance below the poverty line, which the BC government puts at $1,666.66 income per month for a single person. Besides those receiving income and disability assistance, there are another 250,000 British Columbians who live below the poverty line. The BC government has ended claw-backs for people receiving income or disability assistance who are eligible for the new $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit. However, it is not allowing those on disability to be eligible for the $500 COVID-19 grant to help renters. This situation raises the key question of why in a modern society the direction of the economy cannot be organized to ensure that the most vulnerable in society can be provided the means to live in dignity, and that this is not a matter of short-term emergency measures but requires the people to organize for a fundamental change in the direction of the economy. It also underscores the necessity for working people to make their claims on the society, especially during times of crisis, so that governments cannot be permitted to abandon their social responsibility. The $300 per month temporary emergency supplement likely would not have come without the intervention of various rights and advocacy organizations that on March 20 issued seven emergency measures through the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition. Those demands are as follows: - Provide an immediate significant monthly raise to income and disability rates in BC, with immediate distribution. - End all the claw backs of both earned and unearned income from those on income and disability assistance to allow people to retain as much income as possible. - Provide provincial financial support for those who are not eligible for Employment Insurance benefits. - Implement a province-wide moratorium on all evictions. (The BC government announced such a measure on March 23.) - Seize hotel, hostel, and other available shelter assets through-out the province to provide those who are homeless and unsheltered, and those sheltered in unsafe, crowded conditions, a safe place to live and access sanitation for a minimum of three months, with planning in place to ensure transition to viable long-term homes after. - Organize and fund a province-wide, province-led emergency home food delivery system, in collaboration with municipalities, targeting low-income households isolated at home due to existing health conditions, age status and general risk to COVID-19, and increase funding for non profit front-line community agencies providing meal programs in BC to purchase what they need. - Implement a six-month period of interest and repayment relief for all holders of provincial student loans, effective immediately. (The province announced on March 23 that it will freeze BC student loan payments for six months.)
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