Province goes to court to recover welfare funds
B.C.'s Liberal government denied it was "poor-bashing" yesterday by taking more than 300 welfare recipients to court to recover overpayments.
The decision to launch small claims court action against 317 people in the past month was made because the government needed to act within a certain time before its legal options expired, said Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman.
"We need to file before that expires so we can actually still have the ability to collect," he said yesterday.
There are more than 3,000 cases of welfare overpayment in the province, totalling more than $3 million.
Coleman said some cases are frauds, while others are recipients who, for whatever reason, filed wrong information about the number of people in their homes and received more income assistance than they were entitled to.
The Opposition NDP portrayed the move as a government crackdown on the most vulnerable citizens.
"It's typical poor-bashing," said NDP MLA Nicholas Simons during question period at the legislature yesterday.
Housing critic Shane Simpson questioned the wisdom of going after people who have little or no money to make repayments.
"In all likelihood, it will cost the government more to prosecute these small claims than they will get back in dollars," he said.
"So is it the minister's intention to either cut people off, garnishee their cheques -- creating even more hardship for income-assistance recipients -- or do what the government has done for years and years and forgive all of this?"
Simpson later denied he was suggesting government not recover the overpaid money. He asked why the government, which filed only 70 court claims against welfare recipients in the last 16 months, had failed to negotiate a resolution to the most recent 317 cases.
It appears the province is "looking to get any nickel and dime it can out of people" to drive down a welfare budget that has risen sharply during the economic downturn, Simpson said.
Coleman said the province has tried to find solutions out of court, sometimes asking people to repay only $5 or $10 a month. But ultimately, the government must send a message to those who receive unwarranted money and refuse to pay it back, he said.
"I still think there's a responsibility to the taxpayer here," said Coleman. "I don't think we can say we're going to ignore the fact somebody has gotten money from us under false pretense and say that's OK."
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