BC Coalition of Women’s Centres
for immediate release
March 19, 2002



Cutbacks and policy changes to income assistance by the Government of British Columbia will re-introduce treatment of the poor harking back to the Industrial Revolution.  

On April 1, 2002, the BC Ministry of Human Resources will begin clawing back CPP Orphans’ Pensions, child support payments and bingo winnings from the poorest of British Columbia’s poor.  
Statistics show that women make up the majority of BC’s poor and the majority of welfare recipients.  In Canada 83% of lone parent families are headed by women.  One in five children in BC live in a lone-parent family; one in five children in BC also live in poverty.  

Other changes include recovering security deposits from income assistance recipients by cutting money from their support allowances (despite statistics showing it is landlords who consistently refuse to pay back security deposits received from people on welfare), discontinuing earnings exemptions for people with level one disabilities, and discontinuing homemaker services for those in need.  

Rate reductions are also scheduled to hit with distribution of the April 24, 2002 support cheques for income assistance recipients, hitting single parents and people over 55—the majority of whom will be women.  Additionally, at least 27 Human Resources offices have been or will be closing, leaving rural woman in particular with no access and increased isolation.  

According to MHR, applicants will “receive an intake interview date, typically three weeks from the appointment and enquiry date.”  There has been no strategy announced with regard to what people who cannot afford to wait the three weeks for their initial appointment will do during that three-week period.  When applying for income assistance, people have normally exhausted their last resources and may be without food and even facing eviction or cut-off of their basic utilities, such as electricity and gas.   

Single parents (mostly women) will be forced to seek work when their youngest children turn three, and will have their support payments reduced if they are unable to find employment.  Single adults will be cut off of income assistance after two years, whether they are able to find work or not.  This is all done despite the fact that the Government of British Columbia has predicted an increase in the unemployment rate under their new 2001—2002 Provincial Budget.  

Women and children will not only experience increased homelessness, malnutrition and psychological stress, they will be put at increased risk of sexual coercion, violence, pressure to enter the sex trade.  Additionally, without the ability to access adequate food, shelter and clothing—the most basic human needs and Human Rights—women will become more likely to enter abusive relationships or stay in existing ones.  

According to the group, Women for Women Needing Welfare in BC (WWWinBC): “Women are more likely to need welfare at some time in their lives because many raise children alone, and most still have lower paid and more precarious employment than men. Over 90% of women are sexually harassed at the work place, with such high statistics it is necessary to have welfare to protect women. Many women are only one marriage breakdown, or one non-standard job away from needing welfare. Many women leaving violent men must have access to welfare in order to be able to escape.”

In BC, 59% of women report experiencing at least one incident of violence.  BC ranks the highest in Canada for recorded incidents of violence against women.  

Without access to adequate welfare, the clock will be rolled back for women’s equality in BC.  
British Columbians are urged to take action against cuts to our poor and vulnerable through the BC Coalition of Women’s Centres’ website, where they can sign an online petition, write in support of Federal Government action on BC’s Human Rights violations, or send a heart to Cabinet Ministers in hopes they will develop ones of their own.  

The website can be accessed at www.bcwomen.cjb.net

The BC Coalition of Women’s Centres once again calls on Minister of State for Women’s Equality, Lynn Stephens, to stand up in the Legislature and protect BC women.