Policy Shouldn't Create Poverty

Nov 22, 2006: Terrace Standard

A recent Ipsos Reid poll found that 74 per cent of British Columbians support increasing our welfare rates. They are calling for up to a 50 per cent increase in welfare rates. That will be just enough to raise people receiving welfare to the poverty line, the amount of money required to buy the very basic necessities of shelter, food, clothing and health care.

Welfare rates in British Columbia are lower today than they were 12 years ago. Our poverty rate is the highest in Canada. A single person on welfare gets $510 a month; $325 for shelter, $185 for everything else. That's $6 a day to live on, only 41 per cent of their minimum living costs. Welfare meets 48 per cent of the basic needs of a parent with a child.

How did it get so bad? In 2002 the incoming government created the largest deficit in BC history, in part by creating a tax cut for everyone.

Remember that? It then proceeded to cut every government service to pay for it. Over the next two years, it "saved" over $92 million by taking it away from welfare recipients. Our poorest paid for our tax break. Here's how.

First, government cut the basic benefit. A mother with one child lost $43, down to $961 a month. A mom with two children lost $90. If you're already below the poverty line, that loss is huge. These losses affected over 21,000 families each month for the next two long years. The shelter allowance for families of three or more was cut between $55 and $75. Already inadequate to cover the high cost of rent, this forced more families to supplement the rent with the rest of their welfare cheque. Roughly 9,000 families were affected each month, which sent a lot of children to bed hungry every night.

To make matters worse, in the past people could earn between $100 and $200 to supplement their assistance. This is widely seen as a proven way to help people begin their journey into paid employment. Every other province has this provision. The government cut it and the spousal support exemption another modest supplement of $100 a month. Totaled, the cuts came to at least $395 a month. Benefits to older people were also cut. Those aged 60-64 lost $98 a month.

Prior to 2002, many lone mothers could combine income assistance, paid employment and child support so that their incomes would reach just above the poverty line. By 2004, the percentage of single moms living in poverty rose over 15 per cent, 13 per cent higher than the national average. Between 2000 and 2004, government transfers to lone mothers here declined by $2,300 a year. The national drop was $200. Government policy put people into poverty.

It doesn't have to be this way. 89 per cent of polled British Columbians believe that we should all have access to assistance in time of need, that it's a necessary human right. It's what makes us a caring society.

The government insists that the jobs a strong economy creates will answer all poverty questions. But it doesn't because not all the new jobs pay enough. We should make sure that when people get off welfare into employment they can support their families.

The present minimum wage of $8/hr. only covers 80 per cent of essential living costs so full time employment does not remove people from poverty. Abolish the $6 starting wage, it's a grant to employers at the expense of their poorest employees.

In addition, raise the minimum wage to $10/hour. That would allow a person working full time to support their family at the minimum level. 256,000 British Columbians earned less than $10 an hour according to Statistics Canada.

Most are not teen-agers. They are breadwinners, earning half a loaf, forced to use food banks for the other half. The availability of jobs doesn't matter if the pay is so low it cannot sustain a livelihood.

The numbers used here are not anonymous figures. They represent all kinds of British Columbians living in poverty when they don't have to. We can afford to have every citizen and family living above the poverty line. One sixth of our present surplus, a surplus the poor themselves helped to create, would lift them out of poverty. We can be free of poverty in British Columbia. It is a choice.

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Robert Hart is the Past President of the British Columbia Association of Social Workers and a member of the Knox United Church Mission & Outreach Committee.