LESS

MONEY,

2

AlS - Wednesday, January 20, 1982 - North Shore News

MORE PRESSURE FOR WELFARE MOTHER

Feeds her family on $181 a month

“THE PRESSURE is so bad I
almost feel like putang them
in a foster home.”

Referring to her two sons,
aged six and four, playing on
the floor of her living room,
one woman on welfare
describes what it is like for
her.

Looking out the window of
her lower Lonsdale apart-
ment, she speaks calmly
about her situation, but she

She receives $807.92 a
month, of which $47.92 is
family allowance. and $50 is
earned in an incentive
program offered by MHR.

She spends a_ certain
number of hours a month on
community work in return
for the $50.

The major portion of her
allowance is spent on rent--
$467 a month for a two

bedroom apartment.

The rent was increased
$42 from the $425 she paid
until October 1.

That is “too much. The
windows leak and the’ ap-
plances are 20 years old.”

Hydro takés $20 a month,
telephone, $12.50, laundry,
$20 and personal items such
sso shampoo and toothpaste,

She doesn't have a car, so
it costs $2.25 to have
groceries delivered, which
cuts into the $20 allocated

for transportation each
month.
Cleanipg supplies are

listed at $20 a month, and
clothing at $25--“although
the clothing money goes into
the food 90 per cent of the
ume.”

Kids’ outings, such as
school events and birthday
parties, come to $10 a
month.

That leaves $18] a month
for food.

“IT have less money for
food than I did two years
ago,” she says. “I used to get
a basic shelter allowance,
and if the rent was higher, I
would get three-quarters of

that paid for the
ministry.”

What does she think of the
welfare system?

“It stinks.”

by

She says it's true some
people on welfare don't
deserve it.

But as for herself, “I'm
tired of having to ask for
help.”

‘is also angry.

She doesn’t want her name
used because she doesn't
want her husband, whom she
left because of child abuse,
to find her.

Her eyes darken as she
talks about how foster
children, “SO to 70 per cent
of whom come from single
parent homes”, get more
money for support from the
Ministry of Human
Resources (MHR) than her

own.
It bothers her, too, that
‘she has to itemize for MHR
workers how she spent her
last welfare cheque in order
to get a special! allocation
from them to buy her sons
new winter coats.

She has had six stomach
and bowel operations
because of ulcers and will
not be abie to return to work
for at least a year.

On welfare for three
years, she is confident she
can get a job eventually as a
qualified payroll clerk.

She is, she says, one of
those people who truly needs

welfare.
But the income she
receives, she claims, is so

low she wouldn't be able to
, survive without the help of
friends and churches, who
occasionally supply her with
groceries.

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