A few e-mails have come into the Herald with people wondering when Premier Alison Redford is going to come through with her promise to increase Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) cheques by $400, to $1,588 each month.
During the PC party leadership race, Redford also pledged she would allow recipients to earn an additional $800 a month at a job. Right now, Albertans on AISH can earn $400 before their benefits are clawed back.
We don’t have the answer as to if and when another very specific Redford promise will come to pass, but – for the record – in the legislature this week, she did have this response to a reporter’s question on AISH:
”I’m not honestly going to be able to give you the timeline right now. I mean, we’re working very hard on this. We’re also at the same time as we’re working on these issues also dealing with preparing for a budget next year because of course, quite frankly, the budget process wasn’t commenced when it should have been commenced this year. But it’s fine. We can deal with that. So all of this is happening at the same time.”
“What I need to say, and it matters to me, is that we’re not backing down from that. We’re not delaying it, we’re not going to obfuscate it, we’re not going to play politics with it. I went into a Wal-Mart last Saturday to buy Halloween decorations with Sarah (her nine-year-old daughter), and the Wal-Mart greeter came up to me and said, ‘Hello, Premier. Thank you very much for your commitment on AISH.’ And I’ll tell you that I’m not going to walk back into that Wal-Mart thinking that I’m not going to keep that commitment.”
This article is from the Calgary Herald October 26 newspaper under "Politics". To view the online paper please click here or copy and paste the link below into your address bar.
http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2011/10/26/people-are-wondering/
During the PC party leadership race, Redford also pledged she would allow recipients to earn an additional $800 a month at a job. Right now, Albertans on AISH can earn $400 before their benefits are clawed back.
We don’t have the answer as to if and when another very specific Redford promise will come to pass, but – for the record – in the legislature this week, she did have this response to a reporter’s question on AISH:
”I’m not honestly going to be able to give you the timeline right now. I mean, we’re working very hard on this. We’re also at the same time as we’re working on these issues also dealing with preparing for a budget next year because of course, quite frankly, the budget process wasn’t commenced when it should have been commenced this year. But it’s fine. We can deal with that. So all of this is happening at the same time.”
“What I need to say, and it matters to me, is that we’re not backing down from that. We’re not delaying it, we’re not going to obfuscate it, we’re not going to play politics with it. I went into a Wal-Mart last Saturday to buy Halloween decorations with Sarah (her nine-year-old daughter), and the Wal-Mart greeter came up to me and said, ‘Hello, Premier. Thank you very much for your commitment on AISH.’ And I’ll tell you that I’m not going to walk back into that Wal-Mart thinking that I’m not going to keep that commitment.”
This article is from the Calgary Herald October 26 newspaper under "Politics". To view the online paper please click here or copy and paste the link below into your address bar.
http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2011/10/26/people-are-wondering/
Clawing back from AISH recipients in nothing new to the Alberta PCs. In fact, AISH clients are being used as pawns for the PCs to grab back money that doesn't belong to them. How it's done is legislated fraud. First, it is important to the PCs that all Albertan's believe that AISH payments are coming straight from the Alberta coffers and money is more or less "wasted" on these recipients. For example; Suppose a working person becomes injured on the job. The first fraudulent act is for WCB, run by friends of the PCs, to deny the worker's claim and the worker then must apply for assistance. In order to receive AISH in Alberta you must first apply for federal disability. Once that's done, the Alberta government "tops up" the monthly income to what they consider is "plenty" regardless of the person's needs. The federal government has legislated that the disabled receive a cost-of-living increase at or near the country's index. This could be as much as $20.00 a month, give or take. With the Alberta government's maximum at a set allowable income this cost-of-living increase is deducted, and is skimmed off their topped up portion. The result is that ALL Canadian taxpayers are contributing to a fund that goes directly to the Alberta government. With over 30,000 people on AISH in Alberta, and many on federal disability, this cost-of -living increase could be as much as half a million dollars a month or 6 million a year being skimmed from the rest of the country. The Alberta government needs AISH clients to be able to pull this scam. And anytime they increase the allowable income, they are only giving back a portion of what they have skimmed off, while being seen as kind, caring and considerate. there is also another fact the Alberta government doesn't make widely public; If the client is living with anyone else with an income, there is a formula that again reduces the Alberta portion, using that other person's income as part of the payout. Adding the skim from the additional household income the Alberta government could possibly be taking in tens of millions of dollars a year,while AISH people continually find it harder to survive, while fighting the stigma of being second class citizens.
ReplyDeleteV. Redel
That extra $400 to AISH recipients had better be socked away (literally, since any bank balance over a bare minimum is taken back from them) and saved for when they are 65 and the "safety net" dissolves completely and they are discarded like so much trash. AISH and Income Support require them to accept early retirement benefits from CPP starting at age 60, which will cut their monthly CPP income down severely when they are 65 and beyond. AISH, of course, reduces their monthly payments by that much. Another clawback.
ReplyDelete