Saskatchewan income benefit increase not enough: Advocate

While the Saskatchewan government calls its increases to income assistance in the coming year’s provincial budget reasonable, advocates say the increases — and the programs themselves — aren’t nearly enough.

In the budget released last week, the government announced a three per cent increase to its Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) programs.

“Three per cent is very little when you look at how low these benefits are to begin with,” explained Peter Gilmer of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry.

“The reality is is that we’re thousands of dollars per year below (the poverty line) for both SAID and SIS recipients.”

Under the SIS program, the basic benefit for adults outside the north was $345 as of May 2023, and the shelter benefit for a single person in Saskatoon and Regina was $630. A three per cent increase to those rates means a $10.35 and $18.90 increase, respectively.

There are other benefits a person on SIS can access like a prescribed diet benefit or children’s benefit.

As of the May 2023 rates, a single adult on the SAID program can get as much as $1,094 a month for the living income benefit, to which a three per cent increase would add $32.82 a month. Depending on a person’s circumstances, SAID benefit recipients can get additional payments as set out by the Ministry of Social Services.

“We would argue that this is a long way from adequacy and we need to be seeing those benefit rates go up considerably more from here,” said Gilmer.

The rates are so low that Gilmer said people on the programs constantly have to make impossible decisions to keep themselves afloat.

“(Those include) deciding whether you’re going to pay your rent, whether you’re going to pay your utilities or whether you’re going to eat that month,” he said.

Under SAID, recipients have their utility costs taken care of, but that was eliminated from income support when SIS was brought in to replace two previous programs. In addition to higher rates, Gilmer said that’s a problem that needs to be remedied as well. Currently, recipients have to pay their utilities out of their shelter benefit.

While he’s happy to see some kind of an increase, he said he’s disappointed to see such a low increase.

On the other hand, Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky called the increase reasonable, and pointed out that it’s been a 26 per cent increase in benefits since 2019.

In last year’s budget, the increase to SAID and SIS were a flat increase of $30, but this year, the government decided to go a percentage route, weighting it more toward helping families, who get a larger benefit.

“This year, it’s a chance for a bit of a rebalance, to have people who might have children or who might have larger families, it would increase that more than singles,” said Makowsky.

Makowsky also pointed to other things the ministry is doing to help people in need – like hiring more outreach workers, putting more money into trusteeship to help people who struggle in handling money, and paying for official identification so people can have an easier time accessing services.

“We’ve heard that has been a bit of a hurdle for people to get connected to services,” said the minister.

The ministry has also increased the amount people receiving income benefits can earn while on the programs before it gets clawed back, and is putting $9.6 million more into fixing Sask. Housing units so they can be rented out again – two things Gilmer approves of.

“We’re certainly going to be keeping a close watch as to what the targets and plan is in terms of the use of that money (for fixing units), because it’s a real shame when, at a time when we’ve got very low vacancy rates and when we’ve got a rising homeless population, that we do have 3,000 vacant Sask. Housing units provincewide and 700 in Regina alone,” he said.

The Opposition Saskatchewan NDP isn’t looking too favourably on the SIS and SAID increases either.

“I think it was a missed opportunity to scrap SIS completely. It continues to be a total slow-motion car crash (and) stakeholders continue to have nothing but bad things to say about it. It’s just not working for the most vulnerable,” said Social Services Critic Meara Conway.

“So an additional buck a day, it’s not going to really change the course of how we’re seeing the most vulnerable supported.”

Conway is also happy to see the investment into fixing Sask. Housing units, saying the NDP has been banging the drum on that front. But she said it’s also a relatively small investment when you look at the maintenance budget for those units being cut over the last decade.

“It at least signals that they realize there is a real problem in how they’re managing our public housing file,” said Conway.

The budget for Social Services

The ministry itself got a $112.4-million increase for 2024-25, bringing the total amount expected to be spent for the fiscal year to $1.5 billion.

In addition to the SIS and SAID increases, the government is also fully funding its Saskatchewan Employment Incentive program to the tune of $17 million, and increasing the personal care home benefit monthly income threshold to $2,500 from $2,400.

The government is putting a $16.7-million increase to its Provincial Approach to Homelessness, including increases to emergency shelter operations, and capital for supportive housing in Regina and Saskatoon.