Abstract
As part of the Province’s pandemic response, employment obligations were suspended for clients supported by the BC Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (SDPR)’s Expected-to-Work (ETW) income assistance program, during which time WorkBC enrolment rates fell from 15% to 5%. After SDPR resumed enforcing employment obligations (March of 2022), WorkBC engagement only partially recovered (~8%, by October of 2022). Front-line SDPR staff we interviewed relayed complaints from ETW clients of multiple behavioural barriers preventing them from connecting with WorkBC, including: (1) a lack of awareness of the services offered by WorkBC, (2) information/cognitive overload, (3) a lack of motivation or interest, (4) forgetting to register, and (5) impersonal service.