REGINA – Minister of Social Services Terry Jenson is looking to quell fears that changes to the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability program, or SAID, is going to mean cuts for clients.
Jenson told reporters in Regina that “not one single SAID client is going to see a reduction in benefits. Some will see a small increase.”
He said what the changes are meant to do is to “streamline what was a system that was very complex, very somewhat confusing.”
“The manual for SED was over 200 pages. We have thinned that down by putting together five broader categories and allowing a lot more flexibility for the client.”
Jenson said it was “taking a lot of time” for individuals to be able to choose the benefits appropriate for their individual need.
“So by flattening from 30 different niche benefits down into five broader categories, I think it's very important to remember in all this that not a single individual on SAID is going to see a reduction in benefits because of this. In fact, there's going to be a few that maybe see an increase because if they were on an actual payment before and now they're on a flat rate. If their actual payment was less than the flat rate, they're going to receive the flat rate. So they are going to end up with maybe a little bit more in their pocket at the end of the day. And that's why the changes were made.”
Of those whose benefits might have gone down with the changes, “there's only 100 in the entire system that have that circumstance and they'll be grandfathered in,” said Jenson. So they will not lose any benefits.”
As for what the Ministry of Social Services is doing to quell the misconceptions that some advocates may have, Jenson replied: “Standing right here talking about it. We had a press release that came out on it that explained it very clearly how many clients were going to be impacted, what the reasoning was behind the changes.”
