Presentation made at Launch of new report Cornerstone Compromised available at www.policyalternatives.ca July 17, 2013

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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”

5. Methods
Secondary Data Analysis
• Hansard and other government sources
• Media reports
Primary Data Analysis
• Key informant interviews
• Community Forum

6. 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Repealed the “essential” clause
Repealed the “alleviate the pain and suffering”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

7. 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.”

8. Key Finding 1
Create New
Problems and
Exacerbate Pre-
existing Problems
especially for people
with disabilities and
chronic illnesses

9. 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.”

10. Key Finding 2
Downloads onto
Community-
Based Service
Providers

11. 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.”

12. Key Finding 3
Inadequate, Undemocratic
, Ineffective Government
Decision-Making

13. 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”.

14. Key Finding 4
Perpetuates Myths
and
Misconceptions
about ESIA
recipients

15. Key Finding 5
Government
Intentions do not
Match Outcomes

16. Conclusion
Special Needs as
a Cornerstone of
ESIA has been
Compromised

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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