When you are living on GAIT benefits you are able lo pay your tent, buy your food and perhaps (and this tsa qualified perhaps) pay your utilities. Tlothing else. J have a family of four including myself. My GAIN cheques are barely enough lo get us by. I receive $520 per What is it like to be on social assistance? i Worrying from day to day about how you will feed your family until the end of the month. cs —— Crery penny must be accounted for ov else there will be mote days in the month when you will not eat. BE Suis Listening to Bill CVander Zalm making derogatory remarks about people like myself, month, and my expenses aie ds follows: $250 per month for rent — going lo $400 in January, 1979. $51 per month heating (il) T= Fighting for dignity when others ate calling you $50 per month electricity a welfare bum. parapet sealife oC Answering your children without crying when they ask you why they have to wait or do without essen- | tials. $10 per month telephone (a luxury) $58 per month total As h does nol covert expenses. ; As you can see, my cheque c Pp Res Realizing that the only ones who give a damn 7 ate peo le like myself. Fortunately, my family allowance of $51 ts able lo make _peopte tt y: If up the difference of Sar, leaving us with a tolal of $10 per > ees Every day wondering if it's really worth living month as “'mad money”’. Since J have a child in school like this na nightmare that never seems to end. Sound dramatic? Your damn right, because it is. ° and they have a $3 month snack progiam, alt am nol even able to spend thal whole $ro. 4g Jf fame ly “fi, COuver wy (4 f and build a better 4 Ee me / ; pe and “ANCOUve, ie - Qoon cheams TA hell it ts ae nol af, y yd ie age f : what the : neu and love, and of momice 1 , realize that ll 3 don t know then handicap» Noun ley Pas nol above th *6 tad the Canady g First of suse i it it was Hes Serre live on : © Poverty GF ‘ z G jot t {ut ts 9 YI ast J wha | Jf applied ha es <* was about is é ait When x) fi GN. As for 4 sa better te) . Soct Sa : ‘ oe Lo my cage being « © sistance and — then mincom Z thirties thi ae di couldly 1 ee. S fou [ ate eles down i 1 | da job in 19 “aNderss, : "Und myse on ’ na yen Was Sahl, See Only throug = tea BED sation one o, Ie = > : ten I conf, Bo ROR dag Er) i "4 Peat deal of jobs. Hotel huey; meal ticker, Fp erate lisp. A + oul on any s haed pene eine : "d slay al the &, Ce hould be eae f ; : omehoy a dic nN 1 ees 77 id bs BONS tancis little better a 7 See, : ia ed to he a, % ; Seem right. J. made. am hut even the aS ay. ¢ T wondes Ih UNS wey 1 su : ss ; | housing Le MMe] ef how (4 ay ~4Ppos~ Sask : * 5 : dey nee that peop, tt alow “ to hap e; e ce bad and as : On pours through t ow come this BOSS ple wey : Ppen. Gy Seemer| like to live on income assistance. Exerpts from the essays are 1s here g ‘eave! question» © Hawa for | featured right and left. Fred Wilson photo Sia {like 0 2% sion NOM, 4 They i “y \ G)avis iy ees E : | By FRED WILSON SL og han nae 18,509 2 t old ack ep in hal . sRober — it is as basic to life in British Columbia as is the vast wealth ‘ll call him a gn oulacbe ou that is its opposite. Each are equally a part of the system, except that the poor far out- number the rich. About 110,000 people in B.C., in fact, receive some form of income assistance to help them make ends meet. All of them, and there are many more, including thousands with full time jobs, live in poverty. But in spite of their numbers, B.C.’s poor are silent partners in the system. Little is heard from them, even though so much is said about them. How would a single mother on GAIN (‘‘Guaranteed Available Income for Need’’) or a handicapped person answer Bill Vander Zalm anyway? The opportunities are few and far between, but a unique one has been provided this fall with the characteristic flair of the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association, the community organization at the centre of Vancouver’s poorest neighborhood. DERA has sponsored a contest, open to anyone on any kind of income assistance in B.C., to write in essay form about their experiences living on income assistance, their opinions about the system, the adequacy of the rates, and what needs to be done to improve the situation. The opportunity was grabbed up — made attractive by a $1,000 prize — and entries have poured in from all over the province. There were nearly 100 turned in December 12, and the contest won’t close until January 9. “These are real people and their stories tell the truth about income assistance,’’ project co-ordinator Jean Swanson asserted, “*They are single mothers, trying their damndest to support their families. They are children — nearly two-thirds of those on assistance in B.C. are children. Are they welfare bums? Or they are elderly, or they have health problems. In almost every case, if they are able to work, they want to, but there are over 100,000 unemployed in this province.” Being on income assistance is beyond the control of most recipients, but the assistance they receive is completely controlled — and well below the poverty line. ‘‘The single greatest cause of poverty is the low level of in- come assistance,’’ Swanson insists, ‘‘That puts the responsibility for poverty directly in the hands of the government.’? Swanson readily admits to the political motivations behind the contest. The entries are being widely circulated, without names, to help present the case for an increase in assistance rates. A report issued last week by the United Way said that increases of 35 to 70 percent are required just to meet the costs of living necessities. ; The timing of the contest, coming as it does amid the annual Christmas - -tear-jerking for the poor, is entirely accidental, but Swanson sees no reason > why the season should not be used to campaign for higher GAIN rates, just as all year round. “‘The point we have been making is that if you’re poor at Christmas, you’re poor for the rest of the year as well. To be a dignified human being you require a decent income, not charity once a year.”’ The contest also happened to coincide with the shakeup of the Socred cabinet that brought Grace McCarthy into the discredited human resources portfolio vacated by Vander Zalm. But don’t expect any real changes, Swanson says, ‘‘it’s probably safe to say that it’s official Socred policy to have as many people as possible scrounging after the lowest paying jobs. And that is the real reason they won’t raise the rates.” part time my tf heat is tt like living on Gy AIT ? It does nol leave To become a welfare recipient you must first become a - é : i q much lo the magmation. In my particular case, fam very hard wooden puppel. Vou must not expect anything the recipient of Handicapped Allowance. My cheque, from il, excepl the very basics and hardly the basics for including rental supplement, amounts lo the sum of gnoceties. In this government game il automatically becomes a “tyes sit, no sit, yes mam, no mam, and thank you so very much, oh, but don fi forget to be on your Knees to say please, and thank you for all the things you do for me. $418. 75 per month. + Aly rent amounted to $120 per month and starting ¢ etober = 1978, an additional $10 was lacked on, so J moved, I used every conceivable means lo shretch my money, such as going lo the cheap » OY 3 slore on Cordova SE Jf you need new clothing or shoes for the little puppels, It does nol leave one loo much lo spend on recrealion. rrcel it leet ell Box ak Sappil de 5 set ferent now, and jally ¢ istance. It is extremely discouraging to sil home night after night. giow, and especially hose on auk ance * < fed to lo vauous Lt tH stores for-clothing. It : is «Fam forced to go lo vattou hiif ore. fo cle 7] es, Gieosall je i: welfare ee on jg changed because we the recipients are humans and nol puppets. We do have feelings like the people that make the rules for us. % is the same, no matler how you slice il, namely too fittle. Sly question is this: low does a person whe is gellin yd B only S200 ot so a month make i? The answer which uc- curs lo me is as follows: Very badly! Your damn right the rates should be raised. Tot only im my case but in the case of a (GAIN recipients. But tell 1S BARD AS alm and his cohorts that. How about some courses just for welfare recipients lo become a cashier, receptionist or other trade? - 9 To sum it uP Riggers So a like living on © lark side Fi) ‘What is ‘, G's like living on the - in a phrase, 5 b there? ae the moon” Over oo 9 Jr's the houses, ne | » a dke there? "| be What su like : | hotels you ste n us ches, mice» -Kyoaches» ht dead in. Bugs, ae nels. Your war- s fl are common Roane 1, clean if you and fleas worn Ouly : 5 cheap» - % aS m4 drobe ts shabby, it could be ve 2 Be {ha sill cate- yy ae tat brown goat a xuty Your are cithe ‘es ou : Food is a tUXE"?" noodless re. aoe oy se your basic diet is ecaus : , thin. ou re too >) What's the answer rals ments, roomung ho hat would provide prope? Priaily children s So what will the contest accomplish? ‘‘Poor people do not have the tha of themselves. ENON future power themselves to change politics, But if the contest can help arouse the take ok capable persons The list is concern of others — the labor movement, community groups and just ota weet to become a reality: ordinary people — then changes can be forced. A good rallying point Equa opp? " would be for the implementation of the United Way recommendations.” The contest will also bring some recipient, somewhere, a $1,000 prize — in goods, so as to avoid it being deducted from following cheques. It’s here that you can give a hand, by sending a donation to DERA to help them raise the $1,000 that will allow one person, at least temporarily, to beat the system. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE— DECEMBER 20, 1978—Page 10 ? endless-