Social Assistance 

Grace and the United Church of Canada support the creation of a universal guaranteed or basic income. Progress is slow but one area where progress can occur sooner is an increase in basic income assistance rates.

The Nova Scotia standard rate of income assistance (last changed in the 2021-2022 budget) is to the left. There is an enhanced rate of $950 a month if you are an eligible single person who rents or owns a place and either have a disability or chronic condition that limits participation in employment services or are 55 and older, or are 16-18 (inclusive) or are fleeing an abusive situation.

If you do not board, rent or own a home and are temporarily in a homeless shelter, transition house, hospital or rehabilitation program you will get a Standard Household Rate - Essentials of $380 a month for each adult in the household.

Source:https://novascotia.ca/coms/employment/basic-needs-assistance/index.html

The 2024-25 budget did not increase basic income rates. Just prior to that budget the Province announced an one-time payment of $150 for income recipients who do not qualify for the previously announced Income Assistance Disability Supplement. The Supplement which is part of the Province’s remedy in a human rights case, will provide $300 a month more beginning in April 2024 for people on income assistance who not currently in the Disability Support Program and have medical documentation (approximately 15,000 people or 60% of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Program). The government will also allow people on income assistance to earn $100 more below the clawback starts.

There are a number of organizations that produce information on social assistance rates in Nova Scotia. One such report from Maytree shows that social assistance rates are below the poverty line in Nova Scotia (measured by the Market Basket Measure, MBM) and also below the Deep Income threshold (MBM-DIP) which are household who have disposable income less than 75% of the MBM.  https://maytree.com/changing-systems/data-measuring/welfare-in-canada/nova-scotia/

The standard household rate was last changed in the 2021-22 budget, since that time inflation has put severe pressure on a household’s ability to manage. From April 2021 to September 2023, inflation as represented by The Consumer Price Index (CPI) grew 14.3% while food (20.9%) and shelter costs grew even more.

In early November 2023, Grace sent letters to: Honourable Trevor Boudreau, Minister of Community Services; Honourable Timothy Halman, Chair, Treasury and Policy Board; and the Honourable Tim Houston, Premier. To see these letters, just click on the politician’s name.

We received a response from the Department of Community Services. To see that response click here

We invite other people to join us in expressing concern.

We would urge you to send a letter/e-mail to the Premier, Ministers and your MLA to express your concern about the issue and to urge action. If you are unsure what to write we have created a generic minister letter in Word that you can download and personalize. Click here to see it and then use your computer to download

To find e-mail links to Premier/Ministers/MLA - click here