
New benefit increase in B.C. will not provide money to all who need it: critics
CBC
Disabled people living in B.C. say the provincial government's move to increase the shelter rate, for those on income and disability assistance, will do little to lift people out of poverty.
The $125 increase to the monthly shelter rate — which is one portion of the overall income and disability assistance payments — was one of the flagship spending measures announced in the provincial budget released this week.
It's the first increase to the shelter rate since 2007. Previously, the maximum shelter allowance for a single person was $375.
Starting in July, that number will be increased to $500 on monthly benefits cheques, with the amount increasing based on the number of people in the person's family.
However, the payment — exclusively meant to help with a person's housing costs — will not apply to people who live in subsidized housing where rent is geared to income, and does not include everyone who is below the poverty line in B.C.
Critics also say that the payment top-up is paltry given the increasingly unaffordable housing situation in the province, and low-income people will have to pull from their other benefits to continue to afford to live.
"At a time of deep poverty that we live in [and] multiple overlapping crises occurring, this is a very cynical political choice," said Gabrielle Peters, a disabled writer and policy analyst who lives in Vancouver.
A government spokesperson confirmed that only those who have "shelter costs that are more than their current shelter rate" will see an increase in monthly payments.
Peters says this would largely apply to those who pay steep market rates for their housing, for whom a $125 increase will not cover the cost of rent.
"The choice is, essentially, to appear to be doing something to alleviate poverty and finding a way to assist the fewest people possible," she said.
"If that wasn't their deliberate intent, that is certainly the outcome."
Peters says the policy change does not take into account how many poor and disabled people live in subsidized housing in the province.
A 2017 Statistics Canada dataset showed that disabled people in Canada live in subsidized housing at higher rates than the general population.
One of them is Oriana Kapusta, a disabled person who receives provincial disability assistance every month.

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