“Jagrup Brar will meet many people who depend on welfare, disability and low fixed incomes to hear their experiences of how they came to be in poverty and how they struggle to survive on an inadequate income. This month will raise public awareness of the reality of people’s life on welfare, how low welfare rates are and how unfair many welfare rules are.” said Jean Swanson of Raise the Rates, a BC coalition that wants governments to reduce and end poverty.
By R. Paul Dhillon
VANCOUVER— Twenty-five years after New Democratic MLA Emery Barnes protested against a low welfare rate by living on it for one month – a campaign that saw him shed more than 30 pounds – NDP’s current MLA Jagrup Brar is giving it a try to bring awareness to the cause of those living on limited funds under BC’s welfare program.
The Surrey Fleetwood MLA accepted the MLA Welfare Challenge to live on the welfare rate of $610 for a month at a press conference held Monday at Surrey Urban Mission, 13388 104th Avenue, Surrey, where he said he will start on January 1, 2012, spending part of the month in Surrey and part in Vancouver.
“After much consideration and support from my family, stakeholders and colleagues, I decided to accept the Welfare Challenge to experience first hand what life is like for more than 180,000 individuals who live on welfare,” said Brad.
“I have chosen this path believing that through this challenge I can gain a stronger understanding of the underlying causes of poverty and how poverty affects the lives of the people around us and better address these issues in my community and around the province in my role as a Member of the Legislative Assembly,” he added.
“We’re delighted that Jagrup has agreed to live on $610 for the month of January,” said Jean Swanson of Raise the Rates, a BC coalition that wants governments to reduce and end poverty. “We are confident that his experience will help the public understand that welfare rates are too low to live on and that politicians will act to tackle poverty.”
Brar will have $610, the single person’s welfare rate, to cover all his expenses for the full month of January. This includes his housing, food, transit, phone, personal hygiene and all other expenses.
“Jagrup Brar will meet many people who depend on welfare, disability and low fixed incomes to hear their experiences of how they came to be in poverty and how they struggle to survive on an inadequate income. This month will raise public awareness of the reality of people’s life on welfare, how low welfare rates are and how unfair many welfare rules are.” said Jean Swanson.
Emery Barnes was MLA for Vancouver Centre in 1986 when he accepted a challenge to live on a fixed income in the city’s poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside. Constance Barnes, his daughter, said her since-deceased father spoke often about that month.
“Out of all my father’s countless achievements, the one thing he is remembered for most is when he decided to walk the walk and lived in the downtown Eastside on welfare for one month. He was frustrated that welfare rates kept people in poverty, so he demonstrated in a very honest way that you can’t have a healthy life on welfare. As sad as it is, not much has changed in 25 years. I am thrilled to see another strong voice step up to the plate, and courageously fight this battle. I will be supporting this MLA as I did my dad!!” said Constance Barnes, Emery Barnes’ daughter.
“Poverty doesn’t have a postal code, it exists everywhere in BC.” stated Jonquil Hallgate, of Surrey Urban Mission, where the news conference took place. “Society has to understand that low income people are their neighbours. We need to make changes now so that people don’t suffer so much.”
Last May, Raise the Rates challenged all BC MLAs and both leaders to live on the welfare rate for a single person who is expected to look for work. Since then, Raise the Rates has been searching for an MLA to take up the challenge, and working with Brar to arrange the practicalities of taking the Challenge. Raise the Rates acknowledges and appreciates Jagrup Brar’s commitment in agreeing to live for a month on $610.
Brar will directly experience living for a month on $610 for everything, the impossibility of making ends meet, and the many other difficulties of life on welfare. Raise the Rates and a number of Surrey partners will work together to provide support and advice. They will organize meetings to ensure that Brar has a valuable and insightful experience, learning first-hand about poverty, inequality and ‘being on welfare’.
However, both Raise the Rates and Brar are well aware that living on $610 for only one month will not provide the same experience as a person who actually lives on welfare. He will start the Challenge in good health and with adequate clothes; and his life on welfare will end after a month.
The $610 Brar will receive is being provided by anti-poverty group Raise the Rates. The group is calling on the province to dramatically raise single-person income assistance to about $1,300 a month. Raise the Rates says it chose $1,300 because that’s the market basket measure the federal government has said a person needs to have a reasonable life.
The BC Liberal government has stated that it has no plans to raise current welfare rates.
