For Canadians receiving social assistance, access to employment services depends on whether the individual is considered employable or unemployable. This assessment depends more on the past experience of the individuals than on their possibilities or desires. Employment services -- such as labour market information, counselling, training, and prior learning assessment -- should be available to all social assistance recipients to enhance their employability and integrate them into the workforce when possible.

We defined "other support services" as the personal, attitudinal, and situational support services required to enhance a person's employability, for example, child care, equipment and facilities for people with disabilities, and multilingual information centres and services.

We believe that income support and other support services are essential to successful transitions. The dramatic differences in access to employment services between UI recipients, social assistance recipients, and those not receiving any assistance should be eliminated. Assistance should be based on individual needs and not on the type of income support a person is receiving.

Key recommendations

15. We recommend that mechanisms to build up entitlement and eligibility for UI be reviewed to take into account changing working conditions, including the increase in part-time employment, multiple job holding, short duration jobs, low-paying jobs, working from home, and self-employment.
    
    
16. To improve the employability of social assistance recipients, we recommend that federal and provincial/territorial governments and labour market partners review social assistance programs to ensure:

• access to information about services through one-stop information systems,
• access to high-quality employment services regardless of income support received,
• a holistic approach to the provision of training, and
• access to training without losing benefits.