September 26, 2012
Raise the Rates has launched a new welfare challenge to everyone: live for one week on $26 worth of food, the amount that a single, able-bodied person on welfare would have.
In January of last year,...
Keywords: Foodbanks and Food, Welfare, British Columbia
August 8, 2012
The Ministry of Social Development announced a number of changes to income assistance policies. The majority of these changes will come into effect Oct 1, 2012. The exceptions are School Start-up...
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
April 24, 2012
Your Welfare Rights: A Guide to BC Employment and Assistance has been revised and reprinted and is now available to order. This popular booklet is for people in British Columbia who need welfare. It...
Keywords: Legal Assistance, Legal Info (PLEI), Welfare, British Columbia
April 2, 2012
As part of the Federal Budget, the Tories have eliminated the National Council of Welfare.
This shocking news will impact on many, not the least will be those who relied on NCW reports in ant-...
Keywords: Government Policy, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada
February 2, 2012
At the end of May 2011 Raise the Rates launched the ‘MLA Welfare Challenge’. This challenged one or more of BC MLAs to live on welfare for a month to gain real life experience of living on welfare....
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
January 31, 2012
With Jagrup Brar's time on welfare coming to an end he has called the challenge “a very, very eye-opening, heartbreaking experience.”
He has met with many individuals and organizations dealing with...
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
January 16, 2012
BC Coalition of People with Disabilities' Robin Loxton has written an article in Visions: BC's Mental Health and Addictions Journal on the various benefits available to people who are on Persons with...
Keywords: Disability, Mental Health, Welfare, British Columbia
January 2, 2012
When Raise the Rates challenged any BC MLA to live on welfare for one month, only one MLA took up the call. Surrey NDP MLA Jagrup Brar started his one month on welfare on January 1st with a backpack...
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
November 30, 2011
Jagrup Brar, MLA Surrey Fleetwood, has accepted the MLA Welfare Challenge to live on the welfare rate of $610 for a month. He will start on January 1, 2012, spending part of the month in Surrey and...
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
October 17, 2011
Since 1993, today has been recognized by the United Nations, and its members around the world, as International day for the eradication of poverty 2011. Today, October 17, 2011, the United Nations...
Keywords: Government Policy, Homelessness, Housing, Human Rights, Unemployment, Welfare, Women, Workers' Rights, International
September 7, 2011
The deadline to submit a response to Ontario's Social Assistance Review Commission's first discussion paper has just passed and submissions by the Income Security Advisory Committee (ISAC) and the...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, Ontario
August 11, 2011
100 Mile House & District Women's Centre has received funding from the Legal Services Society to provide a range of legal services in the 100 Mile House area. More details area available in this...
Keywords: Legal Aid, Tenants' Rights, Welfare, Women, Workers' Rights, British Columbia
July 8, 2011
In BC, according to provincial legislature if you qualify as a "persons with disabilities" and perform at least 10 hours of volunteer work a week, you are eligible for a volunteer supplement. But...
Keywords: Disability, Welfare, British Columbia
June 24, 2011
The Commission for the Review of Social Assistance has released its first discussion paper and is now travelling around Ontario to do consultations in various communities. You can read the paper at...
Keywords: Welfare, Ontario
June 7, 2011
In this video, an Income Assistance client in Victoria BC finds her rent increased. A hidden video camera records her struggling with a government worker over the resulting impact on her benefits.
Keywords: Government Policy, Housing, Welfare, British Columbia
December 17, 2010
The Globe and Mail reports on what advocates have been reporting for months: problems with BC's welfare phone helpline have been creating long delays in payment, acceptance for welfare and disability...
Keywords: Disability, Welfare, British Columbia
December 15, 2010
A new report from the National Council of Welfare (NCW) shows that welfare can be harder to get today than 20 years ago. This means more people were forced into destitution to qualify for welfare in...
Keywords: Welfare, All of Canada
November 23, 2010
Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapleton has released a new report that explores the weaknesses in the design of North American social welfare institutions through the stories of two individuals. It...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, Ontario, All of Canada, United States
August 3, 2010
While the number of people on welfare in BC has dropped overall, Nanaimo has seen an increase of people on welfare and people who are unemployed.
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
August 3, 2010
The Caledon Institute of Social Policy has put together a report on reforming welfare in New Brunswick.
Reconstructing Social Assistance in New Brunswick: Vision and Action
July 2010
The Government...
Keywords: Welfare, New Brunswick
July 27, 2010
The Vision was developed over two years with input from a massive sample of 1200 Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents, in co-operation with many DTES groups. The process, led by the Carnegie Community...
Keywords: Homelessness, Organizing, Poorbashing, Welfare, British Columbia
July 27, 2010
Article from rabble.ca about the ramification on poor people of the conservative government's getting rid of the long census form:
Sam Boshra, a former analyst for Statistics Canada, puts it this way...
Keywords: Disability, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada
July 22, 2010
Stephen Gaetz talks about the Alberta government's new plan to discourage people from giving money to panhandlers and give to agencies instead. He argues that "this kind of thinking represents policy...
Keywords: Alberta, Housing, Mental Health, Panhandling, Poorbashing, Welfare, All of Canada
July 15, 2010
In this article based on his address to the Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences on May 29th, 2010, the former leader of the NDP summarizes the journey of...
Keywords: Government Policy, Human Rights, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada
June 29, 2010
Lawyers from BCPIAC are challenging the BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development (MHSD) on their small claims cases against welfare recipients. BCPIAC says that the claims that they have looked...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, British Columbia
May 25, 2010
The province is suing three hundred people in small claims court for overpayment of welfare. Many of the claimants are still on social assistance and critics say that the court cases will cost more...
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
May 13, 2010
The BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development has released a report explaining the decline in the Persons with Persistent Multiple Barriers caseload. The Ministry claims that the caseload...
Keywords: Disability, Welfare, British Columbia
April 7, 2010
(Link removed June 2011 - No longer exists)
Keywords: Foodbanks and Food, Welfare, Ontario
March 31, 2010
The BC Liberals are cutting dental support, medical diagnostic equipment, and birth control for the disabled and those on welfare. The $75 monthly Shelter Allowance for people who don’t pay rent will...
Keywords: Disability, Government Policy, Health, Homelessness, Welfare, British Columbia
March 29, 2010
Keywords: Foodbanks and Food, Welfare, Ontario
March 29, 2010
As of June 1, 2010, people with outstanding indictable warrants and arrest warrants under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, are not eligible to receive welfare. A similar regulation was...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, British Columbia
March 25, 2010
Keywords: Disability, Foodbanks and Food, Welfare, Ontario
February 2, 2010
Independent government tribunal had budget cut as appeals rose 46 per cent.
Keywords: Welfare, British Columbia
December 3, 2009
Some news from the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC):
First, the 25in5 Network for Poverty Reduction, of which ISAC is a partner, has released its accountability report on the first year of the...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, Ontario
May 22, 2009
The latest report from the BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development shows that the number of people on welfare who are able and expected to work has increased by 50% over the last year. The...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, British Columbia
May 19, 2009
CCPA has released a report that links increased food bank use to government welfare cuts throughout the 1990s. The report finds that although most provinces in Canada were experiencing high...
Keywords: Foodbanks and Food, Welfare, Ontario
April 13, 2009
An article in the Tyee investigates the BC Ombudsman's welfare recommendations and how the BC Liberal's have created a broken welfare system that has affected individuals and communities across BC....
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, British Columbia
March 23, 2009
In 2005, BCPIAC filed a complaint with the BC Ombudsman because of widespread concerns about unfair practices experienced by poor people who need assistance from the ministry. Today the the BC...
Keywords: Government Policy, Welfare, British Columbia
December 10, 2008
Today on the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the National Council of Welfare (an advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development) released an...
Keywords: Human Rights, Poverty Research, Welfare, All of Canada, International
November 4, 2008
A promised two percent raise in welfare rates in Ontario will kick in for December cheques but according to an article in The Star this will boost payments to a level recommended in 1988. The two...
Keywords: Welfare, Ontario
