Our NDP government has decided to punish the poor by reducing the $300 increase to welfare and disability rates to $150, and then eliminating the $150 on March 31, 2021. People on disability and welfare have been unable to receive CERB and other benefits collected for months by those who had waged work or were self-employed.
This reduction and suspension comes at a time when increases to welfare and disability rates are long overdue. Rates should be doubled or tripled, not reduced to their pre-covid levels. The $300 increase was making a difference. People on disability and welfare could actually get to the end of the month and still buy food.
People receiving welfare or disability will be eligible for the new BC Recovery Benefit, but that is a one-time payment. It won’t help people whose long term poverty level income makes life impossible to afford. It will provide good optics for 3 months and cost millions to administer. Those millions could pay for a permanent increase in welfare and disability rates.
Please write your MLA and the premier premier@gov.bc.ca and let them know what you think.