Article content

Teresa McKerracher is one of more than 100,000 British Columbians who rely on provincial disability payments, which give her $983 a month for rent, food, transportation and other essentials.

Last year’s provincial budget raised disability rates for the first time in a decade, but for her it was by the equivalent of $11 — and she is desperate for a much bigger boost this year.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Disability payments should be boosted in next B.C. budget, advocates and experts say Back to video

“I’m hungry, to be honest with you. … There is just no money for a life,” said McKerracher, who has been on disability since 2008 when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

McKerracher, 53, has little money for food or luxuries after paying her own bills and some for her 28-year-old daughter, who also struggles with a mental illness. She is thankful for her subsidized one-bedroom apartment run by Island Community Mental Health, and supplements her meagre income by working part-time as a care aid.

“But my daughter and I have nothing,” she said in an interview from Victoria “It gets more difficult every year. Rates haven’t gone up with inflation.”