No increase to income assistance in N.S. budget is a human rights violation, says lawyer

A human rights lawyer told members of a legislative committee that by freezing income assistance rates in the provincial budget, the Tory government has made a decision to increase food insecurity for the "poorest of the poor" Nova Scotians.

Vince Calderhead appeared before the law amendments committee on Monday to speak to the Financial Measures Act. Calderhead provided MLAs with detailed calculations about the impactof not increasing income assistance rates.

"So by choosing to not increase income assistance by a single penny, the province is choosing to increase food insecurity, choosing to increase the inadequacy of families' ability to put food on the table," he told MLAs in Halifax.

"Under international human rights law, when you make families worse off, that's a clear human rights violation."

It's the second Tory budget not to increase the rates.

• Income assistance system a 'deep cruelty,' head of Feed Nova Scotia tells MLAs

Freezing rates by the numbers

Calderhead's calculations show that a single person without disabilities who ownsor rents a homeand receivesincome assistance had a total annual income of$9,312 33per cent of what is considered the poverty line in Halifax. In other words, they would need an additional $18,319 to be considered at the poverty line. Anyone who comes in below 70 per cent of the mark is considered to be living in deep poverty, said Calderhead.

The other categories he considered also fall well below the poverty line as calculated for Halifax and none of them are better off than they were the year before.

A single adult who is boarding and on income assistance makes only 30per cent of what is considered the poverty line. A single adult with disabilities who is owning or renting makes 45per cent of the poverty line measurement.

A single parent with a two-year old child comes in at 56per cent of the poverty line, while a couple with two children, ages 10 and 15, land at 61 per cent of the official poverty line for Halifax.

The government's decision to increase the Nova Scotia Child Benefit in the budget putthose last two categories higher than the others, but Calderhead noted that about 75 per cent of income assistance recipients do not have children.

'A political decision'

Although the government has said it decided to focus on targeted assistance for people in need, rather than a general increase in income assistance rates, Calderhead noted in his submission that the government did not increase the standard social assistancehousehold rate, the poverty reduction credit or the affordable living tax credit in this year's budget.

"In this case, the government has been quite open: it's done zero for the poor, except for those who have children," he said.

After paying for housing,Calderhead said there's little left for food which is more expensive due to recent inflation.The result is people not having enough food for themselves or their families, he told MLAs.

"And by doing nothing in the context of 10 per cent food inflation, you've chosen and it is a political decision to increase their food insecurity."

The need for a plan

Following his presentation, Calderhead told reporters that if the government is serious about addressing poverty, it should adopt a three-year plan to get rates to the poverty line and then automatically increase them each year to remain there.

"It would depoliticize the social assistance rate allocation decisions," he said.

"It would say, 'This is what's needed, let's do this.'"

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