by Alex Lytwyn
April 24, 2015

The words “Employment & income Assistance” they sound very nice but the simple fact of the matter is that two of them are not true.

I’m speaking not for all, who are on this provincial program, just from my own experience. Sure, your income is provided to you (even thought, it is well below the poverty level) however, employment and that nice sounding word assistance, I have yet to see.

The following statement has been quoted from the Government of Manitoba website:

The Employment and Income Assistance Program (EIA) provides financial help to Manitobans who have no other way to support themselves or their families. This includes benefits from the Rent Assist Program that helps with housing costs. For people who are able to work, EIA will help them go back to work by providing supports to employment.

A little help, that’s all. That I’m asking for being on the program since ’04 not once has my worker asked if my situation has changed. I’m not blaming the EIA worker here, because they have very heavy workloads and lots to do.
What I’m saying is that maybe there should be another department, where they check on the people who are on the program, to see if anything has changed in the past while with this person? Or maybe their health has improved to where they can go back into the work force? All these people may need, is a little kick in the rear to show that they can still be productive in society. This will do two things: One it will lessen the governments financial situation, because some of these people will get jobs. Two, the department could breathe new life into people’s lives, who all and all, do not have that much. If we could just get a handful of people off the system that really do not need to be there, wouldn’t the province be in a better place, financially and emotionally?

Having a disability, life can certainly have more challenges then the average persons. Employment is more difficult for me to achieve. Now, yes I do understand that I cannot have somewhat of a regular job. However, there are jobs and/or tasks that I can do. If someone were to point me in the right direction, this would help. It’s not due to a lack of motivation, or not having the willingness to work, the fact is that the resources out there are hard to find, that is the main problem. There are a very wide variety of disabilities, some limit people, due to physical or mental restrictions, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

For those of us however, who can do certain types of work, just show us which way to go and we’ll go.

Creating a new department, may sound like making more needless government work, but in this case, “less is more”.

Able-bodied people who are on the system are for the most part “well” Let’s make it “fare” for the disabled.