The sa国际传媒 government made the right decision to stop snatching money away from widows and orphans. Regardless of the intention, the amount of money was small and the act looked heartless.
Four-year-old Brennan Smith was born not long after his father, Tyler, drowned while working at a log boom. WorkSafe sa国际传媒 gives Brennan a child benefit of $286.72.
It鈥檚 not a lot of money, but it would make a difference to his single mom, Haylie Little. 鈥淲ould鈥� is the key word because the province has been deducting every penny of the benefit from Little鈥檚 income-assistance cheque.
The clawback reduces her income assistance to $642.
On Tuesday, after less than a day of outraged calls for action in the legislature, the government changed the regulation and will stop clawing back the WorkSafe money.
The rationale for the old policy, according to Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell, is that income assistance is a 鈥減rogram of last resort.鈥� If you want it, you have to exhaust every other form of income first.
The unspoken philosophy is that if income assistance is too generous, thousands of people will put their feet up and watch hockey instead of working. While some might be inclined to do that, a quick look at apartment-rental rates makes it clear that this is desperate poverty, not the life of Reilly.
None of the politicians and civil servants who make decisions about assistance have to live on anything like $930 a month, but they should know it isn鈥檛 easy.
Most people who live on assistance want something better. Not just more money, but more dignity. Little, for example, plans to attend Vancouver Island University in the fall.
The purpose of the WorkSafe payment is to help a child who has lost a parent through a workplace accident. If the government then claws it back, there is no help. The child is no better off than he or she was before.
The only beneficiary is the province, which got to hang on to the $286.72, thanks to the employer-funded bank accounts of WorkSafe.
The situation is the same as it was for single parents on assistance who were getting child-support payments from ex-spouses. Last year, the government yielded to pressure and stopped clawing back those payments. The change is estimated to cost the province $13 million a year.
The cost for setting right the WorkSafe injustice will be much lower. A drop in the bucket for the government, but a huge difference for a single mother and her son.
