[news] Welfare Cuts and BC Seniors

[ron]

-------- Original Message --------
From: apc at resist.ca

Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition

MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
         February 03, 2004

Welfare Cuts: A New Shock Looms for Pensioners

The upcoming welfare cuts are nothing new to low-income seniors. Welfare
recipients used to feel that they had hit a small jackpot when they became
old enough to receive the Federal pension, but this has been changing for
several years, ever since the previous government began the policy of
forcing older welfare recipients to apply for their OAP/CPP early to get
them off the welfare rolls. This had the effect of forcing their incomes
down over the life of their pensions. People in receipt of these lower
pensions were able to claim GIS to bring their income up to the poverty
level.


A new shock looms for these pensioners and other low-income pensioners!
Any senior who is on minimum Old Age Pension (OAP) has been eligible for
the Guaranteed income Supplement (GIS). This supplement was supplied from
the welfare budget by the Provincial government. Last year the Campbell
government, in a particularly sneaky move, decided to cut the GIS by
deducting the amount the Federal government added by its' cost of living
formula each year from the GIS payment . This means that in a short period
of time, the GIS will disappear and the low-income senior will be worse
off than before even though the base pension will have increased somewhat.


This move is of a piece with the government's plan to remove people from
the regular welfare rolls every month starting with April, 2004, and
continuing to infinity! Phil Lyons, co-chair of the Seniors Network BC
compares the two devious plans: "This process is like the 'death of 1000
cuts' for poorer people as opposed to 'off with their heads'. The
suffering is more drawn out but the end is the same'.

Some of the groups involved in the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition are: End
Legislated Poverty, BC Teachers Federation, Hospital Employees' Union,
Vancouver Status of Women, Anti-Poverty Committee, Aboriginal Women's
Collective, First United Church and various other churches across the
Lower Mainland, BC Government and Services Employees Union, Lower Mainland
Coalition for Social Justice, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
Tenants Rights Action Coalition, Prepare the General Strike Committee,
Housing Action Committee, United Native Nations Local 111, Organizers'
Training Group and the Seniors Network BC.

For more information on the Stop Welfare Cuts Coalition please contact
Lisa c/o End Legislated Poverty at 604-879-1209 or by email at
elp at telus.net