With all the economic news I did some research into the existing poverty levels in Canada, and found a very disturbing series of facts.
Did you know that if you are on welfare (assistance in some provinces) and you get some temporary work, you do not keep a dime of the money, and to add insult, any costs regarding transportation is up to you?
So, for example, a person works for 2 weeks part-time and gets a cheque for $350, that money is taken off the next cheque, all of it. Basically you end up working for nothing at all. Some incentive that is! If you finally find a place to live, and there is a deposit required, that money is demanded back from your welfare cheque too!
If you used the bus to get there, which costs $5 per day, you end up in the hole for $50! Yeah, good incentive to get a job, NOT!
If you are a single parent, you must also cover part of the costs of daycare, so that comes out of your income too. Going further into a financial hole to get some kind of work experience.
If you do have kids or even one child, any support money the other parent pays goes to the government, not the child, which means the children are paying for being poor again! If the child needs to join in any school activities or trips with the rest of the daycare children, they are out of luck because the government will take any funds away again.
The various provinces all will take any tax refunds, child or alimony support payments, and wages from those living in poverty, making the people who do work basically slaves! This is in one of the very richest countries in the world. Sad, ugly, and yes, disturbing. What is even more astounding is that birthday gifts of money or goods is also repayable, so if a parent gets some money to buy anything for the children, that money is required to be reported, then is deducted from the next month income. What happens here is that the children are penalized twice, once from living on basically less than families got 10 years ago and having any support from a parent never seen, gone, with no benefit to the children at all.
In the US there are several states that force welfare recipients to work, but they get little or none of the money they earn. Food stamps amount to around $3 per day to feed an adult. What on earth do people expect the poor to eat on that? So, there are basically some American people working as slaves for their governments too!
There are provinces in Canada that have the most millionaires, yet those are the ones that have HUGE numbers of people living in poverty, and those same provinces are the ones with the HIGHEST number of children living in poverty. Keeping people in what amounts to socialized slavery is probably the best hidden secret in North America.
Bashing the poor, especially children who do have responsible parents who support the children as best as possible, is making a very harsh example for those children. After all, the message is that Mom or Dad going to work is going to put less food on the table, make things much harder, and the value of the work is nothing, worthless, because there is NOT ONE DIME more for anything.
This is deliberate, make no mistake. Some states and provinces scream out “welfare fraud!” when the statistics on any fraud is less than 2% of all people getting support, yet those same statistics are used to make these very harsh policies. Talk about damning all because of a very very few!
There are seniors living in cars, families living in tents or car wrecks, all looking to find somethings just decent, yet the states or provinces make it virtually impossible to get one single dime ahead. Some provinces insist that people who have nothing go looking for work for a minimum of 6 weeks and show they did go around looking for work before they are even allowed to apply for support! Question here. How on earth do you go out looking for work when you don’t have a dime, have no address, have no phone number that prospective employers could call, and have no clothes to go out for an interview?
Actually, in some provinces, that 6 week rule applies to anyone looking for any support. Which means that single moms who are trying to leave an abusive situation must leave their children somewhere to go out to look, which basically can force them to leave those children with the abusive person. Lovely, friggin’ lovely.
As long as the work people do is deemed worthless, and the support for children is seized by governments, and any chance of getting ahead are thwarted, there will be more problems for all of us.
Look at this from a child’s point of view. They need new shoes, sorry, no. They are invited to go out with the daycare, sorry, no. They want to have a Christmas gift for Mom, sorry, no. The child need a new coat and boots, sorry, no. Any possibility of going to the local zoo, swimming pool, movies, or any other outing is gone. Their lives become so narrowed, so lacking in any enjoyment, it become pretty bleak.
This research made me wonder, about those who make these policies, about our society which demeans and belittles these people, and about our own idea of society at all.
The provinces with the worst support are, ironically, those with the most millionaires in them, Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. The rates for welfare in those provinces have actually gone down in the last ten years, making the support cheques worth less than those issued 10 years ago.
The golden rule says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or “Do NOT do to others what you DON’T want done to you“
Guess some people forgot, or maybe we all JUST DO NOT GIVE A DAMN!
December 11, 2008 at 9:46 am |
thanks for timely post on your blog.
concern is that in this economic crisis working poor will fall further behind.
the social progressive have done a great job advancing their own pay, benefits, job security.
In last Ontario election unions, including secondary teachers fronted as “Working families Coalition” with adds on TV. The so called “socialists” say business is getting too much of the pie. Business says they aren’t getting enough to survive. What’s sure is that those on bottom rungs are getting mere crumbs while the so called “socialists” want an ever larger piece for themselves. When the unions talk about taking this action to help the poor as this LIB-NDP coalition that wants to take down Harper they are just tricking poor workers voters to hand over their votes. The unionized workers get the raises and job for life. The working poor get left behind further behind. After 15 years of LIB rule we ended up with more poor.
I wrote my MP to stop taxing working poor. Until they stop catering to special interest who swing the vote for the politicians …I vote. I spoil my ballot in protest to the whole lot. If enough spoil ballots, the politicos may yet realize they may need our votes to get hold of the levers of power. So don’t give your vote away too cheap.
Keep advocating and best wishes.
Ron M
December 11, 2008 at 1:06 pm |
Unless there is a realization that the increasing poverty in the entire continent is dealt with effectively, we all pay for the malnourished children, the increase in health costs and dental damage.
President Obama said he wanted to start at the bottom, but the real bottom is beneath his apparent target, the families living in poverty and often homeless.
At least here in Canada, we know we can see a doctor, and we don’t avoid going because it will take food money out of our budget. That has to be one of the most serious threats to all of us.
From what I see with the so-called Liberal provincial government in BC and the Conservative government in Alberta, there is damn little difference between them, and both just flat don’t seem to even give a damn at all.