[LabComm] CCPA: BC's new welfare policies recipe for hardship

[Shannon Daub]

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
For immediate release: Monday June 9, 2003, 10:00 AM

BC government warned that new welfare policies combined with slow economy
spell upheaval, hardship in communities across the province

(Vancouver) BC¹s provincial government received a warning today from
researchers who say its package of new welfare rules is radical and
unprecedented, and will cause unacceptable hardship and upheaval in
communities across BC.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Social Planning
and Research Council of BC (SPARC BC) joined with anti-poverty advocates at
a news conference this morning to release A Bad Time to be Poor: An analysis
of British Columbia¹s new welfare policies. It is the first comprehensive
review of the full package of policy changes.

³This study sounds the alarm about the government¹s changes to social
assistance in BC,² says Seth Klein, Director of the CCPA¹s BC Office and
co-author of the study. ³We are deeply concerned that the cuts to welfare
rates and eligibility, combined with cuts to employment supports and an
economic slowdown, could be a social catastrophe in the making. We are
particularly concerned about the toxic mix of time limits, the two-year
independence test, and the three-week wait.²

 ³The government has imported many policies from the US welfare
restructuring of the 1990s,² says Andrea Long, a researcher with SPARC BC
and co-author of the study. ³However, it has selectively imported the
punitive policies that push and keep people of welfare‹such as time
limits‹but not the supports that help people make the transition to paid
employment.²

³This is clearly an exercise in budget-cutting, not good social policy. When
the US implemented tough welfare rules in the 1990s, there was also an
increase in spending on programs for low-income people,² says Long. ³In BC,
many new policies actually discourage work re-entry. The government has cut
child care, eliminated earnings exemptions, introduced a $6/hour Œtraining¹
wage, reduced training and educational opportunities, and cut
transition-to-work assistance.²

³The Ministry of Human Resources has taken the biggest budget hit of any
ministry,² says Seth Klein. ³In a very concrete way, we are seeing a
transfer of income from the poorest among us‹who need social assistance‹to
the wealthiest among us‹who received the lion¹s share of BC¹s recent tax
cuts.²

 ³The cuts are forcing people off welfare despite the fact that the
provincial government is not anticipating a drop in the unemployment rate,²
says Klein. ³It is normal for welfare rolls to decline during economic good
times‹that happened in Canada and the US during the 1990s. But it is quite
another thing to plan for a reduction in welfare rolls when unemployment is
stagnant.² 

³Already, the new rules are causing increased despair and hardship for
many,² says Klein. ³There are early reports of an increase in homelessness
in Vancouver, and the cuts are hitting at a time when workers in
resource-dependent communities are struggling with the impacts of the
softwood lumber dispute and exhausting their EI coverage.²

³The government should compassionately rethink its welfare policies,² says
Klein. ³BC should not abandon welfare when in need as a basic human right.²

-30-

Seth Klein and Andrea Long, as well as welfare advocates from Vancouver,
Victoria, Campbell River and Kamloops, are available for commentary. To
arrange an interview, call Shannon Daub at 604-801-5509.

³A Bad Time to be Poor: An analysis of British Columbia¹s new welfare
policies² is available online at www.policyalternatives.ca
<http://www.policyalternatives.ca/>  or www.sparc.bc.ca
----
Shannon Daub, Communications Coordinator
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC Office
http://www.policyalternatives.ca
1400-207 West Hastings St, Vancouver, V6B 1H7
Direct tel: (604) 801-5509     Fax: (604) 801-5122
CAW3000

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