By Colin McGregor
“Asking for social assistance is embarrassing. No one chooses to go on social assistance.”
Lise (pictured) remembers the first time she had to qualify for social assistance after 23 years of work. “I got sick,” she remembers, grimacing. “You aren’t winning a competition.”
Social assistance is financial assistance of last resort. It’s not very profitable either. Currently, social assistance pays around less than $10,000 per year in Quebec ($770 per month), and this, when the poverty threshold is $27,000 per year.
“When I went on welfare,” Lanouse, a volunteer at the offices of the Popular Organization for Social Rights (Organisation populaire des droits sociaux, or OPDS), tells us, “I did a lot of volunteering to hide the fact. We ask ourselves, ‘why me?’ We are judged by our neighbors and our families.”
The OPDS, with their offices in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district on Ontario Street, handles the cases of people who suffer from the setbacks of a system that is less and less accessible. Lise, an activist for the OPDS for 26 years and today the president of their board of directors, sees many traumatized people pass through their doors.
“There is a lot of anxiety living on welfare. The government can cut you off at any time, and you’ll receive the decision in the mail. It’s stressful. There are people who get sick just waiting for such news,” says Christophe, an activist at the OPDS. The organization has existed since 1980 and leads an action program demanding changes to the law.
Accessing social assistance is very complicated. Apart from having to present a bunch of documents, you should not have more than $1500 in your bank accounts at the end of the month.
“Getting on to social assistance is not easy,” Christophe explains. “Particularly for the illiterate, of which there are many, and for immigrants – language is a barrier.” Also there is the fact that more and more government agencies require a link to the internet to do everything. Not everyone can pay to connect to the web.
“Less and less social services are available in paper format or in offices. There are a lot of cuts in its services,” says Christophe. “We work with paper here. We can create files, and we communicate with social assistance agents by telephone and fax. Our clients sign a power of attorney which gives us the right to interact with agents.”
The Quebec social assistance law, which spans 2,500 pages, is so long that “even lawyers and officials responsible for its administration do not know the law by heart,” says Christophe. “Often the agents will apply the law contrary to what it says. And as they say, ignorance of the law is no excuse…”
The complexity of the law sometimes leads welfare recipients to break the law without even knowing it. And when you break the law, intentionally or not, “they demand repayment dollar for dollar,” says Christophe. With this complexity, the OPDS is sometimes forced to contact agents to have them correct their errors regarding the application of the law. “They will refer us,” he said. The OPDS provides training on the law, using a popularized version of the law (250 pages). Sometimes their training takes two weeks to complete.
The OPDS is not allied with any political group. “Politicians change color all the time. We are asking for changes directly.”
The reward for the volunteers who work in this office is the satisfaction of their clientele. “When someone comes here in tears, full of anxiety, they don’t know how they’re going to live the next day,” says Lanouse. “You calm them down, you talk to them, you reassure them, and you speak with their agent to resolve the situation. What satisfaction! It creates a feeling of belonging. Our welcome is an unconditional welcome because we know the weight of prejudice.”
Often, welfare recipients lose their benefits because they are reported while working, for example. Christophe cites the case of a guy who worked for $3 an hour at a convenience store, and lost his benefits because he was reported by someone. “The law says you can do a lot of harm with denunciations,” observes Lanouse. “People resort to solving conflicts by denunciating others.”
If someone is in a relationship, they are not going to give two benefits, because they assume that you are going to act “in solidarity” with each other. And you could obtain social assistance without a fixed address; you just have to go to the Service Québec office to pick up your check.
When I talk to people who deal with social assistance files, they all say the same things: that it is very difficult to enter the system; and that there is a huge bias against welfare recipients.
“It’s like the officers are doing their best to refuse social assistance to those who ask for it,” says a gerontologist, who works with inmates leaving prison. “At age 65, you receive a retirement pension that is adequate to live on; but the difficulty is asking for social assistance for people aged 61, 62 so that they can live adequately until the age of 65. Which is devilishly difficult.”
But it is above all the prejudices against those who receive social assistance that matters to the OPDS team. If you can work, you will work,” Lise tells us. “We don’t like social assistance. We see the people passing through our offices, they are not lazy. You can’t love something that makes you suffer.”
Documents required to access social assistance in Quebec:
• Birth certificate or proof of immigration;
• Health insurance card for all family members;
• Social insurance card for all family members;
• Lease or proof of residence form or documents relating to real estate: the person experiencing homelessness can request that their check and communication be received at the Service Québec office of their choice or backpack (Montreal);
• Medical certificate and/or medical report, if you have one;
• Documents relating to separation or divorce, if applicable;
• Updated bank books, as well as those of the spouse, if applicable;
• All documents used to assess current income and income at the end of the month;
• Proof of school attendance for any dependent child aged 16 and over.
– Source: Popular Organization for Social Rights (OPDS)
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