Alberta disability benefits, AISH-ADAP shift topics on ‘Your Province. Your Premier’

Disability advocates spoke out against the shift from AISH to ADAP when it was announced last year. (FILE)

How Alberta handles disability benefits came up a couple times on the premier’s radio show this weekend.

On Your Province. Your Premier, Danielle Smith was asked about the shift from Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) to the Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP).

Caller Stephanie wanted to understand why.

Smith pointed to the people AISH is meant to serve.

“Those are supposed to be folks who cannot work … and probably never will be able to,” Smith said.

“We want to make sure they maintain the same level of support they have right now.”

ADAP, Smith said, allows for those “who are able to earn some part of an income.”

Smith said it’s not about phasing people off support but opening the door for them to earn as much as they can.

She said if they can earn 100 per cent of a wage, they’re still allowed to maintain medical benefits.

“That’s one of the reasons we were finding people were asking for AISH,” she said.

Disability advocates spoke out against the shift to ADAP when it was announced last year.

Large rallies were held.

Critics said the changes will reduce benefits, erode rights and make life harder for people who already struggle to meet basic needs.

Saturday, the second caller to bring up AISH, Greg, echoed some of those criticisms.

He said the ADAP program “is financially harmful compared to AISH.”

“Would you be willing to reduce your salary by about 20 per cent, which is reflective of the changes you’re imposing upon people in the lowest economic demographic?” Greg asked.

AISH currently amounts to $1,940—$1,740 from the province and $200 from Ottawa.

“Which is still hundreds of dollars per month more generous than other provinces,” Smith said.

She also said Alberta covers 100 per cent of health care.

The ADAP shift, she said, is “already working.”

“We had 30 individuals on this one pilot program, where we were trying to get them off support programs and into work, and all 30 of them ended up getting enough employment where they didn’t need to be on our support programs,” she said.

“We should be happy about that.”

Smith also mentioned paying $185 million into an employment supports program to connect employees and employers.