Description
The Government of Alberta is committed to supporting people with a permanent disability that severely limits their ability to earn a living. The Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) program was established in 1979 to help meet the needs of severely disabled Albertans. In September 2004, the former Minister of Alberta Human Resources and Employment, the Honourable Clint Dunford, responsible for AISH, announced a review of the AISH program and appointed a Government MLA Committee to oversee the review. There were several reasons to conduct a review of the AISH program. AISH clients had said that the benefit was too low and the program was not meeting their needs. As well, when the government announced their response to the Low Income Programs Review in 2001, they confirmed that AISH would remain a separate and distinct program and committed to doing a review to update AISH. Finally, there was a legislative requirement to commence a review of the AISH Act in 2004. The...