The Poverty Trap

As of 2013, in Ontario there were a total of 460,100 people on Ontario Works. Of this, 64 percent were adults, with 27 percent being single adults. There were also 427,100 recipients of the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). Ontario may be one of the worst provinces for their social assistance and policies. Welfare creates an everlasting trap for all recipients, keeping their recipients below the poverty line, and trapping them there with their policies. Not only are rates far lower than in previous reports, but they are also much too low for this wage alone to support a family/person. Rates of adults using food banks has increased dramatically because of the inflation and increases in everyday costs. The poverty gap has increased by about 200 percenrt since 1993, leaving many recipients living on incomes 60 percent below the poverty line in Ontario.

Ontario welfare policies leave recipients worse of, in my opinion. They leave little room for people receiving the social assistance to make any more money or have any assets. Sure, the recipient can bring in an extra $6,000 annually, but this is limited to only $500/monthly. Now this may seem reasonable, but keep this in mind, Ontario Works also makes reductions to your social assistance after you earn an extra $200/month, after this Ontario Works reduces your monthly check by $0.50 per dollar of your income after earning this amount. This allows you to bring in a total of $325/month. Personally, this amount would cover my monthly grocery bill as a common law couple, and this is if I could get a part-time job, which if I could I wouldn't be on welfare. Also, to be eligible for Ontario Works and ODSP, you can only have assets of $5,000 at any period of time. This could include money in your bank account, vehicles, land/house, or even a Registered Retirement Savings Plan. Looking at this from the ODSP point of view, this means anyone in your immediate family. Other provinces such as Alberta and British Columbia have changed their policies to allow up to $100,000 of assets for recipients. In Ontario, if you own a vehicle with a value of higher than $5,000, you could possibly not receive social assistance, you could possibly starve or be homeless just because you own a vehicle. Now say you sold this vehicle, you still have that $5,000+ as an asset whether it is in cash or not, you still may not be eligible for any social assistance. Take all that in and tell me the system isn’t broken.

Let’s say you still believe that welfare is helping those who need it, just look at how much a person receives on social assistance. As of October 1, 2017, a single adult can receive a maximum of $384 for housing/shelter costs, and $337 for basic needs. According to previous reports, the last peak in social assistance was in 1993. Someone on Ontario Works, over 20 years ago, got a total of $663/ month (equivalent to about $995 modern day). This is a whopping $274 more than what someone gets today. Now with $384 a month for housing, you could afford a room in someone's basement, maybe. Now looking at how easily it is to lose your social assistance, who really wants to rent to someone on welfare? Let’s say you found a roommate, now you have bills to pay, wifi, hydro, water, whatever else you might need, this comes out of your basic needs. For example, your basic wifi plan costs $50/month +tax (56.50/2=$28.25), hydro, if you're careful, (100/2=50), water is probably about the same. You have now already spent $150 of your basic needs. $208.75. You have to live off of $208.75 for the rest of the month. On a month with 30 days, this gives you $6.95 to spend each day. Okay, maybe you get lucky, you don't have to pay water (in my case for instance). This gives you less than another two dollars per day to live off of. What kind of life is that? And people wonder why those on welfare tend to be drug addicts or alcoholics. Less than $10/ day. If you can live off of ten bucks a day, I’ll be amazed.

And I know what you’re going to say, because I hear it from everyone. “JUST GO TO THE FOOD BANK.” Let me tell you a thing though. Food banks give you canned food and boxed food. That food that you find in the back of your cupboard and give to the annoying people that come to your door. That is what you are telling me to eat. Not only that but that food cannot provide the kind of vitamins, protein or anything that you need to be healthy. But whatever, people need food, they go to the food bank. The rate of adults aged 18-44 (in their prime working ages) that go to food banks has increased from 2.4 percent (2000-2007) to 3.1 percent in 2010. This can be due to the biggest problem of high housing costs, even in some of the lowest rent districts, someone on welfare still spends an average of 65 percent of their income on rent alone. And because of their inability to get access to fresh and nutritious foods from grocery stores, whether it be from lack of money or transportation, many of the recipients of Ontario Works fall victim to obesity and diabetes (approximately 60 percent of those on ODSP suffer from obesity or diabetes). The last set of data released on diabetes mortality rate in 2004, states that 18 in every 100,000 people in Canada die from diabetes each year. That means that in 2013, of the 427,000 people on ODSP, nearly 80 risked death from their health issues. Now try to tell me again to just go to the food bank.

Now, tell me again how social assistance is so helpful. It’s a trap, no one escapes it in a better place than they were. The policies in place cause people receiving assistance to get stuck in this poverty. Even if someone were to try to get off of welfare, there is a gap in your employment, and if you can get a job, you’d lose your assistance before you could make as much as you would be receiving as a recipient. Even if you could make that much, it is not enough to live off of. Welfare is just one big trap by the government to trick us into believing we’re being helped and that our lives are good like this and it’s all bullshit. And now you’ve just become another statistic, just like all the ones I used in this paper. Someone who has just fallen into this that is the poverty trap.