access to welfare – Project Genesis

Learning, and being inspired to make a change

PG — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 21:30:00 +0000

Sandra, Outreach volunteer

“When you hear what other people have gone through, you can relate – it can help you, it can inspire you, it can motivate you.”

“I started volunteering at Project Genesis after receiving help concerning a problem with my landlord. I decided to volunteer with the Outreach program.

After becoming a volunteer, I started attending activities and workshops at Project Genesis, including one on welfare. At the discussion, two workers were explaining everything there is to know about how welfare works, how to apply, and some of the challenges faced by people who need to receive it. They talked about changes in the law, the Emploi-Québec program, and how these changes would affect people receiving welfare. A lot of people present shared their personal experience and troubles, what they’ve been through at the hands of the agents there and the program in general. It was a great learning experience. I don’t always follow the news, so for me to hear about the upcoming changes helped a lot to figure out what is going on and what is about to happen.

At the time of this event, I, myself was a recipient of welfare. I was in the process of looking for a job but I couldn’t find anything ,so it really shook me to my core to hear some of the horror stories because I felt like if ever my check was to get cut off, it would be impossible for me to take care of my family. As a single mother of 5 children, I felt like it was time for me to think of a plan B, and to act quickly. Since I wasn’t having luck in the job search department, i decided to take another route so I’m currently back in school, studying to become a medical secretary.

The highlight of the discussion was the many diverse testimonies of the participants. When you hear what other people have gone through, you can relate – it can help you, it can inspire you, it can motivate you. And for my part, it definitely gave me a big push and hopefully I will never need to go back to welfare. There’s a feeling of insecurity when you’re on it that I don’t need to feel anymore.”

Sandra, Outreach volunteer

Opinion: Quebec’s welfare reform bill is aiming at the wrong target

PG — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 19:12:00 +0000

Montreal Gazette – February 2, 2016

The purpose of Bill 70, “An Act to allow a better match between training and jobs and to facilitate labour market entry,” supposedly is to encourage welfare applicants to “escape the vicious cycle of poverty” by forcing them to look for work and to accept any job. The sad reality is that frequently the largest obstacle that welfare recipients confront when struggling to get back on their feet and into the job market is the welfare system itself. For example, far from encouraging welfare recipients to find work, the welfare system makes getting back to work an obstacle course. Agents frequently make mistakes when calculating how much money to deduct from someone’s benefit when they have work income. For those living so close to the edge, the smallest underpayment can have disastrous consequences, as welfare recipients simply do not have enough of a cushion to make up for any shortfall. They risk losing benefits by working. This is not paranoia; it is a real danger for someone who can already barely pay the rent.

Sam Hamad, then minister of Labour, presents a bill to the Quebec legislature, Tuesday Nov. 10, 2015. On Jan. 28, he became president of the Treasury Board. Dominique Vien is the new minister responsible for Labour. (CLEMENT ALLARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS )

Welfare recipients also often need to ask employers for assistance to comply with the welfare system’s incessant requests for documents. This means they have to come out of the closet to their employers, a situation that is heart-wrenching given the incredible stigma in our society toward people who need to rely on government assistance to survive. It is not uncommon for employers to terminate employment or to refuse to re-hire someone, as some employers would prefer not to have to deal with an employee on welfare, given the system’s insatiable need for documentation. To break out of this cycle of short-term, dead-end jobs, people need to be able upgrade their skills or retrain. Yet, professional courses are off-limits to welfare recipients. For example, many CEGEPs offer recertification programs for nursing assistants who have not worked recently. As welfare recipients are not allowed to be full-time students, they are not allowed to take these kinds of courses, making them completely inaccessible as they are also not covered by the loans and bursaries program. It is as though the government would prefer that welfare recipients stay mired in poverty. Emploi Quebec does offer some training programs and it is possible to get an exemption from an Emploi Quebec agent so as to be allowed to study. However, if an agent turns a recipient down for a program, there is no way to contest that decision, even though it may have been unreasonable. Even after completing a program, the vast majority of welfare recipients cannot find employment. This is not surprising as most welfare recipients are not out of work because of a personal failing, but because there are simply not enough jobs to go around. In 2014, Statistics Canada estimated that there were 43,000 open positions in Quebec, for 332,000 unemployed people in Quebec. It is naive to believe that in the current job market it is easy to find work without extensive networking. The current welfare system keeps people in such extreme poverty that they lose contact with their former friends and colleagues. This kind of isolation is a recipe for being stuck in the system for the long term. How are you supposed to find a job when you can’t even afford a bus ticket to get to the interview? The fact that the government refuses to address these well-known issues in the welfare system that lead to chronic unemployment leads to serious doubt about its intentions. Is the purpose of Bill 70, which is currently the subject of hearings before a committee of the National Assembly, truly to help welfare applicants find work? Or is it merely to create yet another justification for cutting someone’s welfare benefit? By making policy based on prejudice and myth, the government is ensuring that poverty will be even more firmly entrenched in our society. Cathy Inouye and Rosario Tapia are members of the Project Genesis Anti-Poverty Committee. Other members of the committee contributed to this article.

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People living in poverty speaking out

PG — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 17:41:20 +0000

Susan, Anti-Poverty Committee volunteer

“That is how people’s lives are saved – when they find out where in the community they can get help.”

“I was motivated to participate in Project Genesis by the help I was given in the Storefront. I wanted to participate in this amazing organisation, and so I became involved in the Anti-Poverty and Housing committees.

Last fall, we participated in putting together a photo exhibition which highlighted the realities of life for people living in poverty and receiving welfare.

The photos gave us an opportunity to discuss welfare and poverty issues. One photo that really struck me was the one of a lady opening her refrigerator door at the end or middle of the month. Her fridge was almost empty of food. It showed that welfare is drastically too low for people’s basic living needs. My own personal favourite photo showed a pair of running shoes lying by themselves on someone’s front steps. It illustrated for me all the miles I walk every month because I cannot afford enough bus tickets to commute to my various volunteer jobs. I wear out many pairs of shoes. It was a very poignant illustration for me of how so many people cannot afford public transportation, much less lots of different fancy shoes.

One of the places we exhibited the photos was at the NDG Food Depot. I loved showing people the photos and seeing how they interacted with the images. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to talk with food bank clients and to realize that I was telling someone something new about help they could get in the community at Project Genesis.

That is how people’s lives are saved – when they find out where in the community they can get help. It makes a really big difference, helping people to survive in very stressful situations while living in poverty.

Having the photos at the food bank let people know that they have a voice in the community, because the exhibition itself was created by people living in poverty.”

Susan, Anti-Poverty Committee volunteer

A party to celebrate the dignity of people in our community who are on social assistance

PG — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 15:16:36 +0000

Thank you for your interest – this event has already taken place

Friday, May 8th, 3-5pm at Project Genesis.

You are invited to a party to celebrate the dignity of people in our community who are on social assistance.

It’s tough having to count on welfare or social solidarity for your very survival, especially in a society like ours that keeps telling us that we’re no good to anyone if we don’t have paid work. We know that we do have worth and dignity and we want to make a point of celebrating and recognizing all the hard work that we do, as volunteers, parents, care-givers, etc.

Project Genesis volunteers who have experience with welfare would like to invite you to join them for a party that they are organizing during the Quebec Week of Dignity of People on Social Assistance.

All are welcome. There will be food and entertainment!

Opinion: New welfare rules unfair to immigrants in particular

PG — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 22:17:00 +0000

Montreal Gazette – April 9, 2015

Nobody wants to be on welfare. We are fed up of hearing that welfare recipients are a bunch of lazy bums who take it easy and travel. Those living on welfare are a heterogeneous group of people whose various life circumstances have forced them to ask for assistance. People may have lost their job due to sickness or accident, or been unable to find a job due to a variety of complex reasons. The government has an obligation to assist people in these circumstances as a means of ensuring that basic human rights are respected within its territory. Welfare was created to act as a social safety net in 1969, and would have continued to play that role had it been indexed adequately. Instead, a single person living on welfare is trapped on a budget of $616 per month, which is, needless to say, not enough cover rent, food, and other basic necessities.

Quebec Education Minister Francois Blais speaks during question period Thursday, March 19, 2015 at the legislature in Quebec City. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot)

Welfare is hard enough on people trying to survive on it. They face a gargantuan struggle to feed themselves, keep their apartment, and pay their bills. But the Ministry is threatening to put even more pressure on them with new rules, one of them being to limit the amount of time they can spend outside of the province. This decision seems to be based on the presumption that welfare recipients can afford to travel.

The reality is that there are immigrants who have not been able to go back to their countries of birth to visit family members in years; some have been invited by a family member to attend a relative’s wedding; some would have to travel back and forth between Montreal and out-of-province cities to be at a parent’s bedside while he or she was sick or dying.

People on welfare are already subject to scrutiny by the welfare system. They have to fill out a declaration each month regarding their activities and may be ordered to furnish bank statements going back years along with affidavits from friends, employers, and religious communities explaining how they have been able to survive on such a meagre cheque. By limiting the amount of time people can leave the province to 15 days, the government is further tightening the screws on the people with the least money in our society.

We also believe that these changes are going to affect immigrants more than any other people on welfare, penalizing those who have to cross a border to visit a sick parent, or attend a wedding or funeral. It might take years for someone’s family to raise enough money to offer them a plane ticket so they can visit, and through sheer mean-spiritedness the welfare system would cut this rare visit short.

The previous minister responsible for employment and social solidarity, François Blais, stated that the purpose of the reform was not to save money. It is projected that Quebec would save about $1.8 million dollars by cutting people off welfare when they leave the province for more than 15 days, out of a global budget of $4 billion. That’s a drop in the ocean!

Though this change would only have a tiny effect on the government’s budget, it would have a big effect on the concerned individuals. Even more shocking, these kinds of reforms, based on prejudices and misconceptions about the welfare system, affect all welfare recipients because it spreads the idea that they have it so easy. The new minister, Sam Hamad, should back down on these reforms and instead deal with the real incoherencies in the welfare system.

Myrtle Anderson, Mohamed Benkiran, Candy Barnes, Leroy Wedderburn and Susan Fitch are members of Project Genesis’s Anti-Poverty Committee.

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‘Counter-productive’: Groups denounce welfare reform

PG — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 14:38:50 +0000

The Suburban – February 4, 2015

“There’s still time,” says Clement Citeya of the Comité des Personnes Assistées Sociales de Pointe-Saint-Charles (CPAS). Still time that is, for the province to reconsider its welfare reforms that the groups calls counter-productive and shows “shocking contempt for welfare recipients and are based on a false understanding of the welfare system.”

Quebec is applying its austerity belt cinching to welfare rolls as well, affecting many of the nearly half-million Quebecers receiving social assistance.

CPAS along with Côte-des-Neiges based Project Genesis and other groups held a press conference last week to denounce the changes and Employment Minister François Blais’ “spreading false ideas rather than dealing with real social assistance issues.”

Quebec will begin cutting benefits to anyone outside the province for more than 15 days per month; slash benefits for those living in a property above a certain value, and decrease assistance for those with more than one roommate; and for those with modest levels of earned income. That last one is especially misdirected says David Régnier of ATD Quart Monde, and is actually a disincentive for recipients to integrate into the workforce. “Returning to work is therefore penalized rather than being encouraged. If Québec really wants to support social assistance recipients in their work integration efforts, it should increase the allowable work income of welfare recipients, which would be a simple and inexpensive measure.”

Some 127,000 Montrealers (including 50,000 children) live on social assistance according to a statement by the coalition, adding that many people find themselves on welfare rolls due to medical condition or disability, and experience ongoing barriers including “lack of jobs, low schooling levels, reading difficulties, limited professional experience, inaccessible work sites and linguistic barriers.” Most will likely receive “as little as $616 a month to deal with all their expenses including housing – this is not nearly enough to survive on,” stated Bénoît Racette of Ex-Aequo.

The group counters that individuals who receive the most support are those able to leave social assistance in the greatest numbers.

Quebec says a very small amount of recipients would be affected by the changes to the property and roommate rules, and is also including a $200 benefit for recipients living in a recognized rehabilitation centre, along with extra benefits to ensure they maintain their housing.

Joel Ceausu

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Letter: We should be waging a war on poverty, not on the poor

PG — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 23:28:00 +0000

Montreal Gazette – January 29, 2015

Re: “Quebec to make changes to welfare program” (Montreal Gazette, Jan. 29)

One of the changes to the welfare system proposed by the Quebec government will make it harder for people on welfare to have roommates in order to split the rent. Given that the basic welfare cheque of $616 doesn’t even cover the average rent of a 3 1/2 in Montreal, the government is putting welfare recipients in an impossible situation: We won’t allow you to have enough income to cover the rent alone, but if you try to band together, we’ll call it income and cut your cheque.

As for the indexation of welfare benefits, they went up by a whopping 1.06 per cent this year.

MONTREAL, QUE.: July 8, 2010–Project Genesis members protest outside their local MNA, Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond Bachand’s office in Montreal Thursday July 8, 2010. (Allen McInnis / THE GAZETTE)

According to Statistics Canada, in Quebec, the price of food in stores went up 4.9 per cent this year. The hydro rate went up by 4.3 per cent as well.

The poorest among us are falling further behind. Government policies have become less effective at redistributing wealth over the past 30 years. How much longer will the people of Quebec stand by while the government wages this irrational war on the poor when we should be waging a war on poverty?

Cathy Inouye (community organizer at Project Genesis), Montreal

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Welfare bureaucrats nix single mother’s quest for work retraining

PG — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 22:02:00 +0000

CTV News – January 29, 2015

A single mother from Pointe Claire says that welfare bureaucrats have thwarted her efforts to wean herself off of social assistance.

Anick Boivin was forced onto welfare after suffering an injured shoulder in her previous work as a landscaper and recently enrolled in a six-month course designed to help her find work as a nurse’s assistant.

That initiative led welfare authorities to inform her that she would lose her assistance if she were to go through with the studies.

Boivin was stunned by the decision which came three days before the course was to begin. She has since had to put the training aside.

“I thought that they would be happy and that they would continue to help me to go to school so I can get off social assistance and stop costing taxpayers money,” Boivin told CTV Montreal Thursday.

According to Emploi-Quebec rules, a full-time student cannot receive welfare unless their studies are approved by the ministry. The bureaucrats must assess the applicant’s choice of study and motivation before agreeing to contuinue the social assistance cheques.

Advocates for the poor consider the system flawed. “They’re being paternalistic with the people, choosing what’s best for them instead of allowing them to choose what their career would be,” said Nathalie Sereda of Project Genesis.

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(Audio) Changes to the welfare program

PG — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 23:11:00 +0000

CBC Radio Noon – January 28, 2015

Radio call-in show discussing welfare reform. Speakers include MNA Manon Massé (QS), Solange Laliberté (ADDS MM), and Cathy Inouye (Project Genesis.)

Listen on Soundcloud.

Quebec unveils new rules for welfare recipients

PG — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 22:10:06 +0000

CTV News – January 28, 2015

Upcoming rule changes will affect welfare recipients with two or more roommates, who own homes or who spend significant time outside of the province.

Social assistance recipients who spend 15 days or more outside of the province will also be cut off from welfare, according to the new rules that will take effect on July 1.

Those with more than one roommate will receive less and recipients who fail to report their full income will also be punished, Employment Minister Francois Blais announced in Montreal Wednesday.

Some critics were quick to denounce the measures.

“The type of changes they’re proposing certainly propagate a lot of prejudice about welfare recipients. We believe these changes are based on miscomprehensions about the reality of the most marginal people in our society,” said Cathy Inouye of Project Genesis.

The Quebec government expects to save $16 million from the adjustments, which they estimate will affect 16,000 of the 442,000 welfare recipients in the province.

One social worker noted that the adjustments will compound difficulties caused by other social cuts.

“We have a place where people can come and work on certain objectives that will eventually lead them to employment. Recently the government has made cutbacks to that program,” said Kady Cavanaugh of Multi-Caf.

Watch video on the CTV news website.

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