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Saskatchewan’s Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck called the provincial government’s forthcoming changes to the Saskatchewan Assure Income for Disabilities (SAID) program “cruel, callous and short-sighted.”
The provincial government announced Monday, it was making changes to the program to make it simpler and easier to understand.
According to the ministry, the changes include eliminating a number of individual benefits and bringing them under broader categories, and eliminating benefits that are being provided by other programs and ministries.
The new section on duplicative benefits talks about making sure benefits a recipient is getting aren’t duplicated from another program or ministry, and that the minister is to take any action considered appropriate to avoid duplication, respecting the total amount being provided to the beneficiary.
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The changes also increase the assets a person can have and still apply for the program by $500, and change some benefits which provided the actual cost of an expense to a flat-rate benefit.
Changes in the legislation also allow the ministry to consider money given to take care of utility and shelter arrears as excess assistance if it’s determined the beneficiary had the resources to pay the arrears at the time, requiring the client to repay the amount to the ministry.
Beck spoke to media on Tuesday, saying the changes amount to cuts to the program and to the benefits many people rely on.
“If (the government is) really proud of this program, they don’t slide it in an (order in council) on a Friday and then, when people get light of the changes and start talking about the concerns, then start to spin,” she said.
Beck said she doesn’t believe the changes will improve quality of life for anyone and will, in fact, reduce it for many.
“The proof will be, if they go ahead with these changes, in the quality of life and the standard of living for people with disabilities in this program after April 1,” she said.
Sask. NDP disabilities critic Brittney Senger. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
Beck and Brittney Senger, the NDP’s disabilities critic, also took issue with the provincial government referring to the program in literature and in the amendments as a program of “last resort.”
“Telling people with disabilities that the supports they have relied on for years are a last resort is insulting and meant to vilify them,” Senger said.
Beck said she’s spoken to parents and people who’d been involved with creating the program to allow their children to attain independence. She said with these changes, many are now concerned their adult children will have to move back in with them.
Beck believes the changes are a move from the Sask. Party Government to find money in the budget.
Both Beck and Senger are calling on the provincial government to walk back the changes.
Simply simplifying
Saskatchewan’s Social Services Minister is defending the changes to the SAID program, explaining his ministry has been hearing about how cumbersome, complex and confusing the program had been. He said the changes are aimed at simplifying the process, particularly the suite of possible benefits.
“Before, under the previous niche benefits, they had to be a round peg to fit in a round hole, and sometimes they weren’t, so it made it very difficult to ensure that those clients were getting the benefits that they actually qualified for,” explained Minister Terry Jenson.
Thirty smaller, more targeted benefits are being amalgamated into five broader categories.
“We’ve been very, very clear that anybody that is receiving benefits now will continue to be made whole, nobody is going to see a reduction in benefits,” said Jenson.
However, the minister said what will happen with the level of benefits new clients get will depend on their individual requirements.
He said the wider benefit categories could result in more clients qualifying for those benefits, or receiving more in benefits, and could end up with government seeing a slight increase in the cost to run the program.
Social Services Minister Terry Jenson. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
The program is also transitioning many of its benefits to a flat-rate payment from paying the actual cost. Jenson said this will result in processing taking less time.
“Clients right now have to send in receipts if they’re on an actual benefit, they have sent in the receipts in order to receive that benefit. This new flat-rate benefit system will actually make the processing time quicker, things will turn around faster, and clients will see improved service delivery,” he explained.
If there are expenses over and above the flat rate, Jenson said the ministry will work with the client on an individual basis.
Jenson said of the 18,000 people receiving SAID benefits, only 100 will be affected by the benefit changes.
The NDP and advocates have also taken umbrage with government including the phrasing to call SAID a program of last resort in the regulations.
Jenson said it wasn’t referred to as that previously, but the change is just a housekeeping issue.
“In order for the regulation to reflect the legislation under the Act, regulation has been changed so that it includes that so that it satisfies the wording within the Act,” he said.
Peter Gilmer, with the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, said the reference change shows the province is moving away from a sensitive income-replacement program that was meant to take people’s individualized needs into consideration.
Jenson disagreed, saying it was always a means-tested program of last resort.
“I think the SAID program is a compassionate program when we look at the benefits that are paid. The benefits that are paid in SAID are largely greater than what is paid in SIS,” said the minister.
He said the government takes the disability community very seriously and works continually with different organizations and stakeholders to make sure people in Saskatchewan with disabilities are able to live the fullest life they can.
