At the provincial level in BC, having a spouse essentially prevents someone from receiving disability or income assistance. Money a spouse earns is discounted from assistance payments to an extent that virtually everyone with a working spouse will be unable to receive assistance, or their spouse will be forced to take a significant income cut.

This keeps persons with disabilities out of supportive relationships in fear of losing their assistance, or forces them to become dependents who rely entirely on their partner for support. This eliminates their independence, hurts them financially, and in some cases them forces them to stay in toxic relationships in which they are dependent on an abusive partner.

Persons without disabilities are not barred from having 2-income families, so why should persons with disabilities? Why should they be treated like they are little children? Why should they be kept poor and dependent? Why should extra strain be put on their relationships?

The answer is obviously: none of this should happen. And that's why we're calling on your support to help get the spousal cap on social assistance removed. Let's bring people out of poverty and isolation, and stop treating disabled persons unequally. 

Read: For British Columbians with disabilities, love and survival don't go together

Read: Stop making disabled Canadians choose between love and survival