May 26, 2003

Paid to Disappear from Human Resources

The Ministry of Human Resources pays contractors in its "Job Placement" program as long as the client disappears - job or no job. A Freedom of Information request has produced contract #cesp46075030486 that could be worth almost $17.4 million in billings to the Ministry of Human Resources' program. Dead or alive, as long as a client is never heard of again by the Ministry of Human Resources, the "Job Placement" contractor can receive six payments at the 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 19 month "Independent Placement Milestones".

The contract specifies that "Payments will be made to the Contractor on achievement of the cumulative full months a Participant is independent of Income Assistance". A spokesperson for the Ministry of Human Resources confirmed that payments would continue if the client died, moved out of province or otherwise disappeared, although in the event of death payments would cease if anyone bothered to report it to the Ministry. In other words, the Job Placement program rewards the contractor, not for keeping clients employed, but for assuring that one way or the other the client vanishes from the Ministry's files. The Ministry's spokesperson argues that it is in the best interest of the contractors to stay in touch with the clients to ensure that they don't return to the Ministry. The Ministry has no idea of how many clients are monitored, and payments continue to the contractor as long as the client doesn't cross the door of the Ministry.

With its so called "Exit Surveys" the Ministry has pretended that the majority of clients leaving assistance are moving into sustainable jobs. The truth is that the surveys were completed for only 32% of the people the Ministry picked for its sample; 48% had their telephone not in service. The clients could be in prostitution, crime, panhandling or dead for all they know. Their pathetic excuse for research stands in sharp contrast to US studies and to the recently published Statistics Canada research (pdf) on welfare leavers, but it serves a political purpose of allowing the government to claim it really isn't hurting people with its harsh policies. Now we know that the Job Placement program doesn't focus on job placements as evidenced by the fact that the contractor is paid as long as the client disappears from the Ministry's files never to be heard again.

In its service plan, the Ministry of Human Resources claims that its first goal is for BC Employment and Assistance clients to achieve independence through sustained employment. It would be more honest if the Campbell government admitted that its first goal is to pay for the tax cuts by getting people off assistance and by cutting protection for children. The evidence shows that the Ministry does not know what happens to the majority of people who leave assistance.