The program, aimed at 84,000 Quebecers with a “severely limited capacity for employment” such as a chronic illness or mental health condition, will provide an increase of more than 28 per cent for a single person, the government says
For the first time in many years, Monique Toutant thinks she might be able to buy herself some better groceries and a few new clothes.
Toutant, who can’t work because of acute rheumatoid arthritis that prevents her from sitting or standing for long periods, is facing a little less hardship after her monthly cheque rose by more than $300, to $1,548, at the beginning of January with the launch of the Quebec government’s basic income program.
Anti-poverty activists are praising the program as a good step toward helping people meet their basic needs – but say strict eligibility criteria exclude many of the province’s lowest-income residents. Lalande, as well as Serge Petitclerc of the Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté, said the rules for admission to social assistance are already very restrictive, and it can take years to have people’s health conditions formally recognized. By the time people are approved for higher benefits, their physical and mental health is likely to have further declined due to the effects of extreme poverty, they said.
Caron, who lives in Rawdon, north of Montreal, and works with Petitclerc’s group, said the extra money from the new program might have allowed him to pay an expensive car bill. Instead, he had to sell the vehicle and rely on adapted transit – resulting in a “loss of autonomy” in his rural area. “It would change everybody’s life for the better, because a lot of people are suffering and can’t survive,” he said.
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