Study highlights welfare problems; Income assistance cut for arbitrary reasons
Vancouver Courier
April 25, 2008
By: Cheryl Rossi

When researchers first talked to Lorraine in 2004, she was on welfare and living in a low-income hotel. She'd battled cancer and had a severe drug addiction. She was also expected by the provincial government to seek work.

Six months later, Lorraine, which is not her real name, had given up her room because she didn't have the money to pay for it and had returned to live with her abusive ex-partner. The government cut her off welfare when it believed she wasn't following her employment plan. …She's one of a handful of women, who cooperated with researchers for a study released April 22, who said that they returned to abusive partners or engaged in prostitution to make ends meet. The study initially followed 62 people in Metro Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna who'd received income assistance for a minimum of 15 months--the average time on welfare was eight years--and who were required by the provincial Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance to seek work. Researchers interviewed the participants every six months for two years, conducting final interviews with 45 subjects….

The study also found people were categorized as able to work for far too long, for a minimum of two years, before they were categorized as a person with a disability and given more money. But even those re-categorized relied on food banks or soup kitchens an average of four times per month, researchers found.

As of last April, a single person considered employable receives $610 a month on welfare for food, shelter and all their other necessities. A person with a disability receives $906 a month.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says income assistance rates must be doubled and indexed to inflation….

Pulkingham was particularly struck at how "punishing" the labour market is for single mothers trying to get off welfare. While single people who left income assistance for work earned $1,800 to $2,800 a month, single mothers earned only $600 to $2,000.

"It's just a stark difference in terms of the kinds of jobs lone mothers are able to secure because they're having to do double duty and not getting the kinds of supports [they need]," she said. "We need wage supplements, we need fully universal daycare and we need it to be accessible, and we need supports for mothers to be able to get to and from work. They need transport subsidies. There's a whole range of things that they need."