‘SIS is a nightmare’: Single parents floundering with social assistance

Since even before the Saskatchewan Income Supplement (SIS) program became mandatory, people have been raising the alarm and pointing out what they feel are serious problems.

On Thursday, two single parents on SIS who are facing the possibility of eviction brought their problems to the Legislative Building.

Frank Francoeur has two kids and is living on SIS in a Regina Housing Authority unit.

He had been on a previous assistance program, SAP, but was moved to SIS in August of last year. Because of how the new program works with social housing, after the housing costs are taken away, he has almost nothing left.

Now, because of that difference, Francoeur is facing eviction and said he’s getting no help from Social Services.

“Since I got the writ of eviction against me, I tried to contact Social Services — telephone, email and so on — and it’s radio silence,” said Francoeur. “I have no options right now”

Francoeur said the building he’s in used to have many families on social assistance, but over the past months, all of them have been evicted. He was the only one left.

Francoeur said he had no issues on SAP and his utilities and rent are always paid on time, but he called the SIS assistance rates “cutthroat.”

“SIS is a nightmare. It’s really a nightmare,” said Francoeur.

Kelly Anderson isn’t being evicted now but if things don’t change, she thinks she will be.

Anderson and her 18-month-old daughter had been on SAP until she was transitioned to SIS last June. Right away, Anderson said he was having trouble paying her utilities.

“If social assistance didn’t switch me from SAP to SIS, my utilities would be paid,” said Anderson.

Under previous programs, utilities were paid directly from Social Services to the provider, outside of the benefit received by the client. Under SIS, the person’s utilities have to be paid by them out of their benefits, which some have argued are already too low.

“It’s not just me, it’s everybody that’s on assistance is clearly having this issue,” said Anderson.

Anderson said she’s in a big hole with SaskPower and if she can’t come up with more than $1,000 which was added suddenly from an actual meter reading, her power will be cut off.

“The other day when I was phoning power, I thought to myself, ‘OK, do I take the $100 that I’m going to get for my income tax rebate and put it on my bill, or do I go buy myself a tent because I may possibly need to live in it?’ ” said Anderson.

She said she tried to make payment arrangements to no avail, and when she called Social Services for help, she was told they would be able to help her once she was living in a shelter.

“You should be helping before it gets to that point,” said Anderson.

Anderson called the response from the provincial government “heartbreaking.”

“They don’t care about anybody. In all honesty, the way they speak to you on the phone, it’s like they have no remorse (and) they don’t care,” said Anderson.

Anderson and Francoeur were at the Legislative Building on Thursday at the invitation of the Saskatchewan NDP. The government said it would have people meet with Francoeur and Anderson to see what could be done.

Meara Conway, the NDP’s critic for social services, said this kind of thing is a trend with this government.

“Really, when it comes to these programs, we’ve seen cruel cut after cruel cut after cruel cut, and we’re at a point where the rates are just so low that they’re ripping apart the social fabric. People cannot live on this,” said Conway.

Deputy Premier Donna Harpauer spoke on the issue for government as Social Services Minister Lori Carr was in Saskatoon for an event.

Harpauer said the nature of social assistance programs is that they help people who have challenges and there will always be clients they need to work with one on one.

She pointed out the basic assistance amount and shelter allowance were both recently increased, though the NDP has pointed out it amounts to about $1 a day. Harpauer also said assistance rates in Saskatchewan are comparable to other provinces and Saskatchewan also has a lower cost of living.

Harpauer doesn’t agree with the assertion from the NDP that the social assistance program is broken.

“There was a lot of issues when I was the minister prior — which was a few years ago now — with having the two programs, which was confusing and cumbersome, I always heard, so that they wanted a consistent more simplistic program,” said Harpauer.

Harpauer couldn’t talk about any improvements being made to client services or responsiveness, or whether more and more complaints are being made. She suggested problems people experience are due to their situation and not problems with the program.