B.C.'s Shame: Half of single parents low income
Mar. 31 2009
ctvbc.ca Mi-Jung Lee
Nearly half of B.C.'s single-parent families face the challenges of having a low income.
Even talented, creative parents are caught in the low-income tax bracket, earning less than $30,000 per year.
Josephine Watson loves her job as the project co-ordinator at the Surrey Arts Centre, but her contract expires soon -- then she's back on the job hunt.
With three teenaged boys, Watson is lucky to live in social housing. But even with a roof over her head, she still lacks some of the basics that most British Columbians take for granted.
The beds in her Surrey house are all home-made using two-by-four and four-by-four planks. Even a damaged door caused by rambunctious boys poses a huge problem.
"I'd have to replace the doors. I can't replace the door," says Watson.
And she worries about the affect it has on her three boys.
"My children are challenged socially. They have come to me and said my friends are going there; I can't afford for you to go there."
The family has a paper route to supply extra income, but some simple things still elude them.
"I will never be taking my kids cross-country skiing on the weekend, as much as we'd like to go," says Watson.
About 300,000 British Columbians are working for less than $10 per hour, many who are parents, says Seth Klein at the Centre for Policy Alternatives.
"We have a much larger service sector, the pay tends to be less," says Klein.
This is a common story around the province. B.C.'s median wage for a two parent family with children is $76,400 per year. Alberta's is $88,400 per year and Ontario's is $79,000.
When parents start making more money, many of them lose out on government benefits.
But perhaps the biggest reason that 43 per cent of single parents have a low income is that some fathers don't pay child support.
Watson says the government needs to toughen its support payment policy.
"They need to make some drastic changes to the family maintenance enforcement program so that men are forced to pay, or are forced to work if they don't," says Watson.
But she's not hoping for much.
"It's really tough emotionally. I feel angry and I feel abandoned in many was and may children feel abandoned," says Watson.
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