SAID clients call for increase ahead of budget

The rotunda in the Legislature was full of people Monday morning, asking for help from the provincial government.

They were all clients of the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) program, and each said what they get isn’t enough to live on.

Sydney Chadwick said she gets $1,100 to live on each month and 81 per cent of that goes to rent, leaving $240 for everything else.

“That is what they expect us to live on. They just see us as numbers on a page, they don’t see us as human beings, and they don’t understand what it’s like to live with a life-long disability that’s not going away. This is our lot for life and this is what we have to live on, and there’s no dignity in this right now,” said Chadwick.

The Sask. NDP talked about the problem during Question Period, asking the government about when the benefits would be increased. Chadwick was in the gallery.

“Sitting in there, listening to them debate our rights, it is really clear how little they care,” she said.

There are others who are asking for an increase to SAID and talking about other benefits that had been cut.

Jaimie Ellis said the program used to cover transportation but that was cut, so if he wants to go to Camp Easter Seal this year, he’s going to have to find some way to pay for it.

“So I have to pay out of my own pocket if I use Driven with Care or something,” said Ellis.

Joseph Reynolds said he’s noticed a decrease in services or cutbacks and programs disappearing. He talked about the special diet benefit, as an example.

“I always had protein supplements that were supplemented to me on the SAID program on social services, but that program got cut,” said Reynolds.

He said losing that program was a real emotional blow and he feels like he’s losing dignity and self-respect on the program. Reynolds is hoping the government can increase the program.

“I’m living day to day with cutbacks on programs. I pay half my SAID money onto my rent. I basically have my rent but I have no food. I’m left with $129 a month, and I have an $80 mid-month. That’s what I have to live on,” said Reynolds.

Many of those on SAID work, like Shelley Alderson, but she said if she makes too much, the government takes it off the benefits “dollar by dollar.”

“And by the time I get my social services cheque it’s very low. And when it comes to benefits and all that it’s very, very low,” said Alderson.

What many of the recipients talked about what dignity.

“There’s no dignity in the lack of respect that the Sask. Party has shown us,” said Terri Sleeva, an advocate who says she has family on the program.

“We need to have a government that works for us, not against us.”

The recipients were guests of the NDP in the Legislative Building, and the NDP’s social services critic, Meara Conway, said the party has launched a petition to raise SAID, which has been signed by hundreds of people across the province.

Conway said the program hasn’t seen an increase in seven years, through a pandemic and dramatic inflation, and there were a number of parts of it that were cut like the special diet allowance, transportation, and disability benefits.

Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky said the government has listened to people’s concerns and he teased that there will be announcements on some of the ministry’s major programs in the spring budget Wednesday.

Conway said that to bring SAID benefit back to original rates, they would have to see a 20 per cent increase.

“We’re heartened to hear the government is planning an increase to SAID rates with this budget, and we’ll be watching closely to ensure that it’s an increase that actually reflects reality, given the extent to which this program has been starved in the last nearly a decade,” said Conway.

“What I hope we don’t see with this SAID increase is something like we saw with the SIS where they gave a buck a day and that didn’t even make up for the cuts that were represented across the board under the program.”