National Council of Welfare
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Guest Speaker Statements

on the release of

 

Welfare Incomes 2009

 

December 13, 2010, Ottawa

 

 

Delivered by

Kizzy Paris, Joane Dallaire, and Barb Gosse

  

Check against delivery

 

Kizzy

Good morning and welcome to the release of a new report on the state of social assistance in Canada.

Bienvenue à cette conférence de presse.

My name is Kizzy and I am not on welfare – but it matters to me.

I moved to Ottawa, from Montreal, in 1997 with my now ex-husband, with a progressive plan of action. The plan included obtaining a post secondary education, securing gainful employment, and becoming a home owner.

Since moving to Ottawa, I obtained an education, and I have spent over 10 years working to try and secure a healthy lifestyle for my family.

I am educated, employed, divorced, and a parent. As a working single parent with two children at home, I do feel vulnerable to job loss and potentially having to draw on social assistance.

Were I to have to apply for such assistance, I would want the process and the assistance to honour my dignity, not contribute to a feeling of second-class citizenship.

Despite having a plan of action, and sticking to it, it is and has been hard due to circumstances outside my control. This is the case for others as well and it shouldn't be this way and it doesn't have to be this way.

So I hope you will listen closely to what John and Glen from the National Council of Welfare have to say.

Joane

Hello,

As you’ve just heard, I’m a budget counsellor for a financial literacy organization called Entraide budgétaire Ottawa.

Part of my job involves offering advice and support to people having problems with their budget.

In many cases, the process is fairly easy and “pain-free”. I encourage my clients to plan their budget a few months in advance, and we make sure that the expenses they face are evenly spread out over the coming months. Naturally, I urge them to put a bit of money aside for the unexpected.

Unfortunately, those on social assistance, and particularly individuals without children living on their own, are rarely able to balance their budget. In many cases, the benefits they receive don’t even cover their actual housing and food costs. A number of them have to use the money budgeted for food to pay their rent. In terms of being able to eat and looking after the other basic necessities, these are the solutions they’re left with: going to a food bank, eating in soup kitchens, putting off paying the hydro bill (but risking having their electricity cut off), not paying the phone bill, relying on the charity of others for clothing. And needless to say, they can forget about buying Tylenol for their headaches.

How do you devise a budget with a person who’s on social assistance? Once you deduct from their income such costs as housing, transportation, telephone and a portion of their food needs, you have to let them know everywhere they can go to get free goods or services to meet their other essential needs.

Naturally, social assistance recipients who use our services don’t have a “rainy day” fund to use as a cushion against unexpected expenses or to offset their monthly budget deficit. To qualify for social assistance under Ontario Works, you have to have used up almost all your financial reserves.

When you’re in such dire financial straits, it’s all you can do to see to even your most basic needs.  And with all the effort it takes simply to survive, you have precious little energy left over to get off social assistance.

Thanks for listening.

Barb

I am pleased to be here today to support the important work the National Council of Welfare has been undertaking since 1986. This report published today - Welfare Incomes 2009 – makes it clear that most welfare incomes across this country remain far below any socially acceptable measure of adequacy. This has got to change if we are to ensure a basic and realistic, living standard for all types of households and indeed the ultimate reduction of the number of individuals and families receiving welfare and those trapped by the welfare wall.

There is no question that greater stability, mobility and wellbeing are key to promoting and sustaining welfare exit. However existing policies that expect households to “spend it all now” regarding family income and cash flow, before gaining access to income and services are counterproductive. Rather than promoting economic security, such policies prevent families from advancing up the socio-economic ladder. We agree with the NCW that low liquid asset-exemption policies are counterproductive and that asset and earnings retention along with sufficient income to meet basic needs are not just the safety net – but they can be seen as the “trampoline”, if you will, to assist those individuals and families and indeed – our economy – to withstand financial setbacks and bounce back.  Basically, welfare policy needs to be amended so that it does not strip applicants of the same productive assets they will need to become self-sufficient, leave and stay off welfare later on. This is exactly what welfare supports are intended to do. 

SEDI has seen how this works first hand. We have designed, implemented and managed several programs that have provided matched saving incentives and financial literacy supports to social assistance recipients. These savings incentives have been targeted towards outcomes that enhance self-sufficiency for example increasing access to, and take up of, post secondary education, job training and saving first and last month’s rent.  We have seen participants like Lynne Fisher, a single mom, living on welfare in a shelter in downtown Toronto, save enough through incentivized savings and with supports like financial literacy move to her own apartment, gain employment and move off welfare within a two year period.  Lynn has retained her independent lifestyle and her apartment for over 4 years now.      

Don’t get me wrong, this is not easy for everyone on income assistance but these programs provide hope where not much exists. Income Assistance Recipients struggle generally to save and build assets however they DO demonstrate that even those with the lowest income respond to the incentives of a matched savings program. Also, noteworthy is the fact that six provinces have moved to exempt personal and matched savings in recognized programs for those on Income Assistance.

The Province of Manitoba has recently taken the logical step to ensure that Income Assistance Recipients are able to hold up-to $4000 per person, in financial assets, in order to assist with the transition from welfare.  The recognition that those with few assets, restricted under punitive regulations are not able to break this cycle of dependency, has framed this important policy change.  

Now is the time to move the discourse on asset-building and asset—retention forward into action. These necessary regulative amendments and related supports need to be recognized as the investment they are – and most importantly – an investment in the lives of those who need it most. These are necessary changes that will assist Canadian families who are struggling financially and better promote financial security and upward economic mobility because as we all know now – POVERTY IS certainly about income—but it is not just AN ISSUE OF INCOME. 

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Date Modified:
2012-09-27