In March 2009, our office issued Last Resort: Improving Fairness and Accountability in British Columbia’s Income Assistance Program. This report included 28 recommendations to what was the Ministry of Housing and Social Development, with timelines for implementation. The ministry accepted and agreed to implement all the recommendations, except Recommendation 23, which proposed that the ministry compensate people adversely affected by the ministry’s delay in initiating a regulatory amendment.

Our recommendations addressed four areas:

• applying for income assistance,
• persons with persistent multiple barriers to employment (PPMB),
• medical and other documentation requirements, and.
• implementation of previous commitments.