This is the centerpiece of BC's income assistance changes. It's very modest, but not insignificant given that for a single person the existing maximum benefit is $760. #bcpoli https://twitter.com/richardzussman/status/1245758851401449472

For context, this is a LONG way off from the temporary supplement up to 75% of the MBM that @LindsayTedds, @GillianPetit and I along with @CCPA_BC have been calling for.

One nice positive here is that they've bundled this supplement for both those getting IA and the Seniors Supplement. So even if it's small, BC gets credit for working to plug two of the major gaps in the federal CERB.

But gosh has BC left a lot of low hanging fruit on the table here and I genuinely have no idea why. What should they have changed, but didn't? Lifting the asset test, dropping the work restriction, and changing the clawback rate. I'll walk through each below.

First, the asset test. Everyone gets that people are going to slip through the CERB. IA is a much less generous backstop that should capture those people, but the asset test will rule many out. Dropping it for the duration of the crisis solidifies that backstop & is a no brainer.

Two, the requirement to search for work. @LindsayTedds seems to think that Minister Simpson mentioned it in the presser (hope so!), but it's not in the BG. For pretty obvious public health reasons, it's not reasonable to expect folks to be on the job hunt right now.

Three, if folks are able to get a little work on the side, particularly as the crisis eases, we want to make that easier. IA in BC has a ridiculous clawback schedule. It would be good practice in the crisis (and going forward) to smooth out this clawback rate.

The three points above are the pretty obvious policy moves that should have been made and that I'm hopeful that government will decide to advance on over time. But I guess it says something about stigma that government, even for a temporary duration, couldn't make these changes.

Given that some of the big pieces were left of the table, my hope to see IA better used to assist students seems like a bit of a pipe dream. But it would be genuinely easy for government to run a targeted program to help new graduates get on IA. Without it, most won't.

And, provinces and the feds are both pointing at each other on the student issue, but IA is a potential avenue to sorting that out at the end of the day if the province steps up.

So the round up here: $300 is going to help. It's not generous, but it's also not trivial. And it's pretty clear that the vision as to how IA fill the cracks in the CERB was missing in rolling this out, meaning that there's still some cleanup to do.

Last comment: I went back at @LindsayTedds' prompting and reviewed the video and it's pretty clear that work search requirements have been turned off so that's good. Definitely worth updating the BG with that information.