The Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP), Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), “and what good disability income support design actually requires”.
An important new research project is being conducted by Dr. Lindsay Tedds and Dr. Gillian Petit, and we encourage all eligible Albertans to complete their survey
Today we want to write a quick note in which we highly recommend reading a new blog entry by Dr. Lindsay M. Tedds, an Economics professor at the University of Calgary, in which she writes about the Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP), Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), “and what good disability income support design actually requires”.
While we do not know Dr. Tedds personally, we have followed her on social media for many years now, and we respect both her and her work. Therefore, we want to promote her current research project on the above subjects here.
In our opinion, the following paragraph is worth quoting because when certain people go around asking questions like “Why don’t you just get a job?”, as if they are thinking like economists, they actually give economists a bad name:
On the Minister’s conduct and rhetoric: I would be remiss not to address what has accompanied this process beyond the regulatory design itself. Minister Nixon has, throughout this file, demonstrated a level of indifference to the people affected that is difficult to characterize charitably. The communications strategy has leaned heavily on the kind of tropes that economists and policy analysts spent decades debunking and that somehow refuse to die: that the best anti-poverty program is a job, that income supports create dependency, that what people with severe and permanent disabilities primarily need is the right incentive structure to get them into the labour market.
Our defensiveness aside, we primarily want to encourage all eligible Alberta residents to complete the research survey Dr. Tedds has created with her co-author Dr. Gillian Petit for their independent research study:
Gillian and I are conducting an independent research study evaluating the effects of ADAP on the economic well-being of Albertans with disabilities. If you are an AISH recipient, an ADAP recipient, or someone who supports people navigating this transition, we want to hear from you. Your experience is data. Your experience is evidence. And in a process that has been conspicuously short on “nothing about us, without us,” your voice matters.
The survey is here: Evaluating the Effects of ADAP on Economic Well-Being
Please share it widely.
Regarding eligibility requirements for this survey, they are as follows:
1) Live in Alberta
2) Be between the ages of 18 and 64; and
3) Either be an income assistant recipient (AISH, ADAP, Income Support) or a person with disabilities (self-reported or diagnosed)
As Dr. Tedds said, “Please share it widely.”