• About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

New Brunswick needs to stop treating people living together as economic units to justify denial of income assistance

by Kai Mallaley
October 12, 2021
Reading Time: 2min read
New Brunswick needs to stop treating people living together as economic units to justify denial of income assistance

Fredericton. Photo by Kai Mallaley.

It was August 2018. I met my partner and wanted to move in with them but New Brunswick’s Household Income Policy has made that impossible.

Two years after aging out of foster care, I started receiving social assistance. I have borderline personality disorder, which involves an unstable sense of self and moods and suicidal behaviors. I also experience anxiety and depression, so you can imagine how hard it has been living on my own with all my symptoms.

I was very lonely with no parents and very little support. So when I met my partner I urgently wanted to live with them. But when I learned that I would lose my income assistance, I got worried and had a panic attack because my mental disabilities prevent me from having and keeping a steady job.

It made my decision of not being lonely and living with my partner and their parents even harder. I lost my income due to the Household Income Policy that counts the income of all people as an economic unit to determine whether recipients qualify for income assistance.

To be clear, my partner and their parents make income but I do not. I don’t get any of their income and I don’t make my partner pay for my medications or my food. However, they feel forced too, but why should they? I feel like I should be responsible for spending for my own needs but the Household Income Policy makes me feel even more incapable. I need my medication but I need to not be alone.

Choosing love has been hard for me over the three years I’ve been with my partner. I can’t keep a stable job and get the funds we need to move out and live together, which has been a goal of ours. I can’t get better because I have no money to get my medication that I need or therapy. I’m stuck in the house 24/7 with no money even for transportation. I can’t even visit my friends on my own, who are the only people I have in my life that mean a lot to me besides my partner.

All these factors make handling my mental disabilities even harder than I feel like it should be.

I feel like the Household Income Policy discriminates against the people who use it and need it most. Why is the government counting the income of my whole household when I’m the one who needs the funds? Maybe if I had income support, I could finally feel like I’m contributing to my makeshift family and maybe my depression would not be so bad. If I had the income I needed, I would feel supported by the government instead of feeling tossed aside like I’ve always felt since I was a child.

Kai Mallalley is an aspiring changemaker born and raised in Fredericton.

Tags: Household Income PolicyKai MallaleyNew Brunswicksocial assistance
Send

Related Posts

No timeline yet on pay equity bill promised during election campaign [video]
Economy

No timeline yet on pay equity bill promised during election campaign [video]

March 13, 2025

On International Women’s Day, a crowd marched through the streets of downtown Moncton. Their message: the time is now for...

Tantramar Council orders annual glyphosate testing of Sackville and Dorchester drinking water
Environment

Tantramar Council orders annual glyphosate testing of Sackville and Dorchester drinking water

February 7, 2025

Tantramar Town Council resisted advice from Town Engineer Jon Eppell on Tuesday and ordered that drinking water in Sackville and...

Province repeatedly ignored striking postal workers’ offer to deliver social assistance cheques: union
Labour

Province repeatedly ignored striking postal workers’ offer to deliver social assistance cheques: union

November 30, 2024

The union representing Canada Post workers got the cold shoulder from the new Liberal government of Premier Susan Holt when...

From rainbows to storm clouds: unraveling the hidden harms of New Brunswick’s changes to Policy 713
Gender

Liberal government’s proposed revisions to Policy 713 prioritize cisgender comfort over transgender rights

October 28, 2024

In July and August 2023, the PCNB government issued revisions to the Department of Education’s Policy 713 considerably restricting rights...

Load More

Recommended

The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

The Millennium Scoop: an ongoing crisis for Indigenous families

4 days ago
Délai prolongé! COOP Média NB offre d’emploi : Journaliste vidéo autochtone

Toujours pas de justice cinq ans après le meurtre de Chantel Moore

4 days ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join the Co-op / Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

X
Did you like this article? Support the NB Media Co-op! Vous avez aimé cet article ? Soutenez la Coop Média NB !
Join/Donate