Cornerstone Compromised:A critical analysis of changes to Special

Needs Assistance in Nova Scotia

Launch, July 17, 2013

Report co-authored by Sara Wuite, Christine Saulnier and Stella Lord

Basic Needs

include a „personal allowance‟ and a „shelter allowance‟, which

are meant to cover rent, water, heat, electricity, and

other 'personal' or family expenses such as food, clothing, etc.

Special Needs

includes items such as transportation, special dietary

needs, medical equipment, basic telephone

service, over the counter and prescription medications, and other items and services as

outlined in the ESIA Regulations and Policy Manual.

Government Intention

“make it easier for income assistance clients to understand what special

needs funding they can receive, and ensure funding decisions are

consistent and fair province wide”

to “fairly meet the needs of income assistance clients”

Methods

Secondary Data Analysis

• Hansard and other government sources

• Media reports

Primary Data Analysis

• Key informant interviews

• Community Forum

Changes to Special Needs Allowances under the Employment Support and Income Assistance program

Repealed the “essential” clause

Repealed the “alleviate the pain and suffering” clause

Changed the “provision of dental care”

Redefines a special need to an explicit list

Explicitly excludes a list of items and services

Impact on Recipients:

What we heard

“Well it means that they don‟t go in unless it is a dire situation.”

“– this is all about exclusion. There is nothing about inclusion in the changes.”

“It‟s more than the regulation changes a year ago. Physicians complain to me every day that their doctors‟ letters are being rejected and [DCS] want more detailed information.”

Key Finding 1

Create New Problems and

Exacerbate Pre-existing Problems

especially for people with disabilities and

chronic illnesses

Impact on Service Providers:

What we heard

“I am not able to support people to get their basic needs met in the manner that I used

to be."

“And it‟s more work because I am pushing in other directions to try to get it.”

“There are more people that are requiring support, and it puts pressure on charity and they are not able as often to address some

very basic health needs.”

Key Finding 2

Downloads onto Community-

Based Service Providers

Public Policy Decision-Making:

What we heard

"And it just sort of all came as a surprise to everyone. We heard that there weren‟t going to be very many changes, like clients weren‟t going to be directly affected by it. Then, boom.

People were screwed.”

“I often hear families say that unless they ask a question, there are things that are available for them, but unless they

ask the right question, they don‟t know if things have decreased, or increased, or what is available.”

they operate in silos in government, they don‟t even talk to one another. Good luck with them talking to us.”

Key Finding 3

Inadequate, Undemocratic, Ineffective Government

Decision-Making

Intentions vs Outcomes:

What we heard

“I think the changes have made this worse – we have a standard of what‟s acceptable for people who live with

poverty, and we have a standard that‟s deemed acceptable for all of the rest of us.”

"Those kinds of comments, they really are about making the vast majority of people who are not educated about what it is like to live on social assistance feel okay about taking things

away from „those people‟.”

Unless it affects their lives in some manner, it is just, “People living off the system”. People don‟t want to live off the system! They want to be contributing members of society and there‟s

that horrible, huge stigma that is forever around”.

Key Finding 4

Perpetuates Myths and

Misconceptions about ESIA recipients

Key Finding 5

Government Intentions do not Match Outcomes

Conclusion

Special Needs as a Cornerstone of ESIA has been Compromised

Remove barriers to access to special needs

Reinstate an ‘open-ended clause’ in the

ESIA regulations

Remove most of the ‘special

needs prohibitions’ in s. 24(2) of the Regulations

Restore the decision-making

authority for special needs

to the ESIA Regulations

Streamline the intake process

and requirements for adequate

documentation

Recommendations

Fully index special food-related allowances to inflation

Implement meaningful stakeholder engagement procedures

Implement a Poverty Reduction Action Plan as integral to developing Healthy Public Policy

Incorporate human rights perspective into ESIA legislation

Make transformational reform of the Income Assistance Program a Top Priority

Recommendations

Thanks

Full Report available for free download on the

website.

•To Sara Wuite

•To NECHC

•Anonymous Reviewers

•To all of the stakeholders who took some of their valuable time to be

interviewed.

Tel: (902) 477-1252 or toll-free 1-877-920-7770 (within Atlantic Canada)www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/nova-scotia