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Psychological Services
April 2005
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ARCH Psychological Services
April 2005 |
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Alberta hikes disabled pay, but not everyone is happy with the $100 raiseEDMONTON (CP) - Thousands of severely disabled Albertans will be getting $100 more in their benefit cheques soon, but some are blasting the raise as a paltry payment from such a rich province. Community Supports Minister Yvonne Fritz announced Friday that payments for Albertans receiving Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) will increase to $950 per month. She said the allowance will be boosted by another $50 per month next year. "We heard that many AISH clients felt the living allowance of $850 a month was too low," she said. The province has been under attack from opposition members since last fall for failing to significantly hike the program payments since 1993. Premier Ralph Klein took some heat during the provincial election campaign for a suggestion that some recipients of the allowance may be abusing the system. He later backtracked from those comments. Fritz contended Friday that the 30,000 people who receive the payments will welcome the increase. But Louiza Kotri, whose son Andrew was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis when he was 23-year-old university student, said she wasn't impressed. "It's pretty pathetic," she said. "With the billions and billions of dollars they are raking in, they have the audacity to stand there and pat themselves on the back for giving us $100. Shove every one of them in a wheelchair and see how far they get on $950 a month." Her son can no longer feed himself or move himself in and out of his wheelchair. Kotri said if Andrew wasn't living at home he wouldn't have any quality of life at all. She said the problem with the program is that it treats everyone the same despite the fact that some recipients have $100,000 in the bank and a car and a house and others were stricken with a disability before they had a chance to earn a nickel. Kotri added that if her son owned a home, the province would pay for the modifications he needs, but because he lives with his mother and father, they have to bear the cost of the necessary renovations. The opposition parties also criticized the amount of the increase. They say when inflation is factored in, people who depend on the cheques are still receiving less than they did in 1993. NDP critic Ray Martin said a wealthy province such as Alberta can afford to treat the severely handicapped better. But while some advocates for the disabled said the raise was less than they hoped, they applauded some of the changes to the program. "It would have been good to have seen somewhat larger increases in the monthly benefit, but the changes in how the program is delivered, and the supports that it provides, corrects issues that have been problems and hassles for people with severe disabilities," said George Lucki, chair of the Alberta Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. Alberta Liberal critic Bridget Pastoor called the provincial government's announcement of changes to the AISH program "a good first step" in improving the lives of the thousands of Albertans. "For the first time in over a decade we have a minister that gets it," said Pastoor. "This is a positive start to addressing the desperate needs of those on AISH." But she didn't like the province's plan to review the amount every two years. "Two years is too long to wait for a review and there is no guarantee of any increase once it is complete." Liberal leader Kevin Taft said there is a better way. "I don't see why they
couldn't index the annual AISH increase in the same way they index MLAs pay each
year," said Taft. "That would be a good way to show that all Albertans are on
the same playing field." © The Canadian Press, (April) 2005 |
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