‘We need a new program’: Poverty advocate sees SIS problems in auditor’s report

The problems with the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program outlined this week in the provincial auditor’s report aren’t exactly brand new to advocates like Peter Gilmer.

Gilmer is with the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry. He and people like him have been warning and talking about many of these things since SIS was first introduced.

“Literally every day we hear from somebody who has not been able to get through to the client service centre,” said Gilmer.

The report released Tuesday pointed out that more than half of calls to the social services call centre regarding SIS weren’t answered in the six months the auditor looked at.

Gilmer said that has been very problematic, especially since people don’t call in to the service centre unless they’re desperate.

“To be in that circumstance, to be looking at issues of your most basic needs and then not to be able to get through is a problem,” he said.

In his office, Gilmer said advocates spend a fair amount of time helping people in emergency situations and making sure managers and supervisors within social services know what is going on with their clients.

“That’s something that shouldn’t have to be brokered. It’s something that should be part of the service provision that people can access that communication in a timely manner,” he explained.

Gilmer thinks the service centre needs more appropriate staffing, but he also doesn’t believe a call centre model is necessarily the best route for service delivery in this case. He said clients having an individualized worker who they could call and engage with them through the different steps and planning would be better.

It’s not just access, as in getting ahold of someone, that is a problem. Gilmer said it’s also difficult for people in need to gain and keep their benefits.

“In many ways it’s a full-time job for people to be constantly jumping through hoops for what ends up, really, being a pittance of support that doesn’t meet their most basic needs,” he said.

And when a person spends most of their time trying to keep their assistance, Gilmer said they don’t have time to do other things that would help them leave the SIS program.

“That is taking away from time where they could be developing their potential, where they could be looking for work, where they could be doing all kinds of things that would allow them to move forward,” said Gilmer.

The auditor’s report also pointed out that more than 5,000 utility accounts under SIS clients are more than a month overdue with more than $100 in arrears, and that hundreds of SIS clients are being evicted without the ministry keeping track of it.

Having problems with utilities was something advocates like Gilmer have been talking about for years.

Under previous assistance programs, the actual cost of utilities was provided for by the ministry separately. Under SIS, clients have to pay for things like water, power, heat and basic phone from their shelter allowance, which is as high as $630 a month for a single person in Regina or Saskatoon, or $1,205 a month for a family with more than three children.

Gilmer said it’s caused crises.

“It’s extremely difficult for people to gain or maintain housing if they can’t maintain their base utilities,” he said.

If someone has utility debt, they also can’t find new housing until that debt is cleared.

Gilmer believes the SIS program needs to be scrapped.

“We need a new program that ensures actual cost of utilities, that ensures that there’s levels of adequacy that can at least meet basic needs that people have — which is a basic human right — and that the service provision model is also improved drastically so that people have better access to service and better lines of communication,” said Gilmer.

He said more and more voices have been adding to the chorus around SIS and this auditor’s report adds to that.

“There’s a growing consensus that significant change needs to happen and I am hopeful that we will get there but it’s going to continue to be a fight,” said Gilmer.