Clicklaw Blog

• Legal Services Society published an article in their newsletter Elan summarizing changes made to welfare benefits in recent months. The most recent edition of Your Welfare Rights: A Guide to BC Employment and Assistance is available on Clicklaw, and Legal Services Society is preparing an insert of updated information.
• Among the changes that came into effect on June 1, 2010 are new rules about welfare eligibility for people who have outstanding arrest warrants. Rebecca Cuttler interviews Pivot Legal Society lawyer Doug King in the podcast New Provincial Law Bans Social Assistance for People with Warrants.
• Earlier this year, major changes came into effect relating to coverage for health supplements for those on welfare. The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities has updated the help sheet Health Supplements for People with Disabilities, which summarizes the current range of medical services and supplies provided by the BC Ministry of Housing and Social Development.

The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities has updated their series of help sheets on BC disability benefits. There are 14 help sheets for people with disabilities who need to access provincial disability benefits and the medical services & supplies provided by the Ministry of Housing and Social Development. The help sheets cover applying for the persons with disabilities (PWD) benefit, applying for the persons with persistent and multiple barriers (PPMB) to employment benefit, appealing a denial of benefits, and other topics such as trusts and health supplements for persons with disabilities. New with this March 2010 update: three help sheets have been translated into Chinese.