welfare rates

Low welfare rates, minimal childcare support and skyrocketing rents mean B.C. has one of the highest poverty rates in Canada. The B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition is organizing a week of action.

British Columbians are in desperate need of affordable housing, higher social assistance rates and public school funding. Instead the government is spending a budget windfall on paying down the debt.

In the recent B.C. budget, people with disabilities were given a rate increase of $77 a month. At the same time, the government increased the cost of a monthly bus pass from $3.75 to $52.

When food banks first appeared in Canada almost 30 years ago, there was a vigorous public debate about them. Now they are a familiar institution and food poverty has gotten worse.

If you are poor, you're likely to suffer more and die sooner from whatever ailments you have. A recent panel examined the links between poverty and bad health.

Raise the Rates issued their second annual Welfare Challenge last month. Participants were asked to eat on the amount of money a welfare recipient has left over after other expenses are paid.

If the NDP is elected, they say they will increase the basic rate for single, employable people by $20. Activists say this will do nothing to address the problem of poverty in the province.