The B.C. government says it is just being fair by raising disability benefits by $77 a month, then charging recipients $52 monthly for a bus pass that used to cost $45 a year. The math says otherwise.
The good news: Those on disability allowance will see their $906-a-month payment go up by $77, a modest increase, but very welcome, considering it has been nearly a decade since the allowance has been increased.
The bad news: For many recipients, the actual increase will be only $25, because the cost of the monthly bus pass will be deducted from the cheque.
Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell says the previous system was unfair, because 45,000 people with disabilities were living on $906 a month with no additional transportation support. Meanwhile, 55,000 people received their monthly assistance plus a $52 bus pass (for which they paid a $45 annual fee) or a $66-a-month transportation allowance.
Now, says Stilwell, everyone will get the same amount and can choose to buy a bus pass or keep the full $77-a-month increase. The $45 annual bus-pass fee has been waived.
“These changes create fairness,” Stilwell said.
The 45,000 didn’t receive transportation assistance because they lived where transit wasn’t available or chose not to use the bus pass. So because they couldn’t or wouldn’t use the free bus pass, it has been taken away from those who could. It’s a strange sort of fairness.
These people are getting by on less than $1,000 a month for housing, transportation, food and everything else they need. The $77 increase is far less than the rate of inflation, so it’s highly unlikely it would have been spent on luxuries.
And the bus pass was not a luxury. It was a lifeline for those most in need of a lifeline. It helped them to be part of the community, getting them to the stores, to church, to the library, to see friends and so forth. Independence is crucial for many people dealing with disabilities, and the bus pass greatly enhanced that independence. It likely reduced the risk of depression and illness.
To take away the bus pass is to negate most of the effect of this small increase for those who depend on transit.
In their calculations, government accountants and cabinet ministers can look at the disability allowance and the bus pass as two separate items on the ledger, but to recipients, it was all one package, one they depended on for the necessities of life. For the government to give with one hand and take away with another is thoughtless at best, and cruel at worst.
In approving the changes, MLAs should have looked a little more closely at what they would mean for people who depend on the disability allowance. Legislators have developed a compensation system that ensures they are comfortably cushioned from hardship and want; perhaps their perspective is limited and distorted by that level of comfort.
Recipients of government assistance should not expect to live in ease and luxury, but with this miserly approach to the disability allowance, there’s little danger of that.
Restoring the free bus pass would be a decent and compassionate thing to do.
