By: Hannah Fraser, News Writer
A coalition of over 50 small business owners, non-profit leaders, and advocates have written an open letter demanding the BC Minister for Social Development and Poverty Reduction “remove the earnings limits for people receiving disability assistance so that they can earn a living wage.”
Those currently receiving disability assistance can receive a maximum of $17,802 in benefits alone in a year. However, these benefits are “clawed back” if a disabled person makes more than $16,200 a year. Altogether, a single person with a disability could receive a maximum of about $34,000 a year, equivalent to $17 per hour.
Over the last two years, Metro Vancouver’s living wage has increased from $20.52 to $25.68 — an increase of 25%. The living wage is calculated to include the cost for a person to cover basic expenses — food, housing, clothing, transportation, and more — in their city.
The Peak interviewed Anastasia French, provincial manager for Living Wage for Families BC for more information.
“If you are disabled, you face additional costs, and yet the government wants you to be surviving on less,” said French. She noted additional costs include medication, specific heating or cooling requirements, more expensive groceries if facing dietary restrictions, and equipment like mobility aids.
The coalition is asking Minister Sheila Malcolmsom to “use the 2024 update to the BC Poverty Reduction Strategy to remove the earnings exemption.” The strategy “sets a path to reduce overall poverty in BC by 25% and child poverty by 50% by 2024.”
In the press release, Chantelle Spicer, campaign manager for the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, said the limit “keeps people with disabilities trapped in a cycle of poverty.”
The Peak reached out to the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, who said the “government understands how important earnings exemptions are.” The Ministry explained that in January 2024, they increased the earning exemptions. They added they also recognize the difficulties brought about by global inflation which “is making life more difficult, especially for people on income and disability assistance.”
“The earnings limit is a rule that is targeted squarely at a population known to be vulnerable and which denies us basic dignity.” — Steve Wright, a disabled worker from Disability Alliance BC
The minister referred to alternative social structures such as the 80,000 affordable home projects they have delivered or are underway, minimum wage increases, reducing childcare costs, and more. Yet, the minister acknowledged, “While good progress has been made, there’s more work to do to make life better for people and their families.”
“There are many employers that want to pay their disabled staff a living wage,” said the open letter. “However, these employers find themselves having to pay their disabled staff less or offering them fewer hours than their non-disabled peers, so their staff do not lose access to their disability payments and other entitlements such as housing.”
Steve Wright, a disabled worker from Disability Alliance BC, was on disability assistance from January 2008 until late 2023, when he reached his earnings limit in 2023, which halted his disability assistance. “While on disability assistance, I was made to feel other, and at times, experienced the crushing powerlessness of my livelihood being beholden to a faceless governmental ministry,” he said.
“I kept working because I was able to at that time. But my ability to work is never guaranteed because I am severely mentally ill. Disabilities are not often set in stone. They are erratic beasts that can alter our existence at any time and which can hinder our ability to work.” Wright added that if his ability to work changed after he reached the earnings limit, he would be “bereft of options.
“We are abandoned and left without support by the very government that declared us in need of sustained financial support to begin with.”
The current disability assistance policies force people to “choose between working beyond our abilities and possibly harming ourselves; ceasing work before reaching the earnings limit; or being left without any income at all. The earnings limit is a rule that is targeted squarely at a population known to be vulnerable and which denies us basic dignity.”
Minister Malcolmsom said, “The BC government’s new and ambitious 10-year, cross-government poverty reduction strategy is anticipated to come out at the end of this month and considers ways that government may be able to further improve direct income supports for people in BC.”
Yet, according to Wright, “The only way this can change without a meaningful and substantial increase of the disability assistance rate to the equivalent of a full-time living wage is to remove the earnings limit.”
