[news] B.C. document details welfare cuts (fwd)

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 13:29:57 -0700
From: shniad at sfu.ca
To: shniad at sfu.ca
Subject: [pr-x] B.C. document details welfare cuts

Globe and Mail	   October 21, 2003

B.C. document details welfare cuts

New regulations will force up to 29,000 people off rolls as of next April,
NDP says

By Rod Mickleburgh

Vancouver -- Thousands of British Columbian welfare recipients will be cut
off without a dime next year, according to an internal government document
obtained by the opposition New Democratic Party.

Under the most Draconian welfare regulations in Canada since social
assistance became widespread in the country, as many as 29,000 people will
be slashed from the welfare rolls during the fiscal year starting April 1,
2004, the NDP says the document indicates.

At the same time, the benefits of an unknown number of single parents will
be cut by $100 a month as the government tries to force recipients to find
work with an unprecedented "tough" approach to social assistance programs.

The new rules prevent single individuals whom the government rules
"employable" from receiving welfare for more than 24 months in a five-year
period. Currently, they receive $510 a month.

Also scheduled to be cut off are "employable" couples with no children, who
receive benefits of about $827 a month.

The two-year clock for these so-called employable groups began ticking April
1, 2002, so those who have been on welfare since then face losing all social
assistance next April.

"This is a first in Canada, making people not eligible for welfare at all
based only on a time limit," said Michael Goldberg of the Social Planning
and Research Council of B.C.

"In fact, I find it hard to imagine the government will actually follow
through and do this. I mean, the vast majority of these people are very,
very hard to employ. Yet, come April 1, the government is basically saying:
'Okay, go out and starve now.' "

Human Resources Minister Murray Coell disputed the NDP's interpretation of
the document, calling it "one moment in the current situation of the entire
caseload". However, he did not provide his own estimates of how many people
will lose their benefits next year.

The document disclosure in the legislature came on the same day as
antipoverty activists gave notice they will fight the government in the
courts over the drastic welfare cuts.

Lawyer Gwen Brodsky of the Poverty and Human Rights Project said that
denying benefits to people without work violates the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms guarantee of "security of person" and equal protection.

"Cutting people off welfare will result in increased homelessness, hunger
and poor health, and it may also lead to activities that are demeaning,
dangerous and even criminal," Ms. Brodsky said. "This is a group that is
already stigmatized, discriminated against and lacking in political power
simply because its members are poor."

She said there is an obligation to defend the human rights of vulnerable
individuals who rely on social assistance to meet their basic needs.

The lawyers and activists said they are preparing a legal challenge now on
behalf of those who will lose their benefits.

They predicted an inevitable increase in crime as individuals who cannot
find work have to do something to find money to survive.

"What is a young person to do?" demanded Robert Arnold, acting president of
federated antipoverty groups across B.C. "People are going to be left
without any source of income, with nothing left to lose. That is a dangerous
situation. This is an unconscionable act by a government without a
conscience."

The government says the new regulations are designed to end automatic
entitlement to welfare for individuals who have been ruled capable of work.
Human Resources Minister Murray Coell has said 10,000 jobs exist in the
government's job bank for welfare recipients.

But Mr. Goldberg said many studies have shown that not everyone who wants to
work is able to find a job.



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