Social assistance reform risks weakening women victims of violence who depend on shelters, warn groups who are urging Minister Chantal Rouleau to correct the situation.
Abused women are in the “blind spot” of Bill 71 which aims to reform social assistance, argue the Federation of women’s shelters and the Grouping of shelters for women victims of domestic violence.
The two groups that were not on the agenda for consultations on the bill were finally added to the agenda on Wednesday. They must be heard Thursday morning.
They criticize the reform for forcing women victims of violence to obtain a medical report to have access to a monthly benefit of $161, the benefit for “temporary employment constraints” (CTE). Until now, the latter was given automatically to women who arrived in shelters and shelters.
When a woman leaves a violent home, the spouse may retain control over the household’s social assistance provision, the Federation argues in a written opinion. In this context, “the employment constraint benefit therefore quickly becomes the only assistance available for female victims who arrive at the shelter”.
Even though the bill also proposes to split social assistance checks between spouses, concerns remain. “The check addressed to the victim’s name could easily be seized by the attacker,” argues the Federation.
“Among the 4,100 women housed in our 46 houses last year, 42% declared an income of less than $20,000. These are women who are already in very precarious situations and on whom we would impose a significant additional burden,” argues the Association of Homes for Women Victims of Domestic Violence.
Progress too
The two groups are also surprised that by requiring a medical document, the bill places an “additional burden” on general practitioners in a context where they are already difficult to access.
Although the minister affirms that it will be possible to obtain medical reports from other professionals such as social workers, such services are also “congested,” argues the Federation.
The bill nevertheless contains advances for women, according to the organization. This is the case of the new financial aid granted to people who continue their studies or the decision to no longer count the parents’ contribution when the adult child no longer lives with them.
” Before […] young women victims of violence within their family who decided to leave their home remained linked to their attacker because of this parental contribution,” writes the Federation.
The latter also welcomes the decision to give separate checks to recipients who live as a couple, which will prevent victims from being subjected to “economic control”.
Services replaced by something else
The abolition of benefits for “temporary employment constraints” (CTE) constitutes the main irritant of the groups consulted as part of the study of bill 71. On Tuesday, some of them demonstrated in front of Parliament to urge Chantal Rouleau to correct the situation.
The minister insists that she wants to replace these benefits with “allowances for health constraints” to “humanize” the system. “We want to help people who are currently on social assistance and who have employment constraints. We are going to transform the employment constraint into health constraints to be focused on the person, that is humanity,” she said in Parliament on October 3.
Until now, the CTE benefit was offered automatically to people meeting the following criteria: pregnancy, health problem, dependent preschool age child, dependent disabled child, age 58 or older, awaiting a decision , caregiver, responsible for a foster home or a family-type resource.
In the case of people aged 58 and over and parents of preschool-age children, the benefit would be abolished if the bill is adopted as is.
For others, notably abused women, the minister plans to replace them with “adjustments to the benefit” or “special benefits” the nature of which will be specified after the law, via a regulation.
A situation which reinforces the concerns of the Group of houses for women victims of domestic violence. “A regulation can be changed much more easily than a law,” argues its co-responsible for political files Mathilde Trou, who also points out that there can be a delay “of several months” between the adoption of the law and the submission of the regulations. “We want it to remain enshrined in the law,” she insists.
Parliamentary consultations on Bill 71 which began this week must end this Thursday.