FACT SHEET
WELFARE RATES IN B.C.

"There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however,
that we now have the resources to get rid of it."

~--Martin Luther King
FACT: 212,492 people in B. ¢. are on welfare (May, 1990 SS&H info).
FACT: 75,276 of these people are children.
FACT: 34,301 are single parents.

FACT: 17,257 meet the Ministry’s tough definition of
"handicapped".

FACT: Thousands of people on welfare are classed as "unemployable"
because they are too ill to work.

FACT: 126,000 people in B. Cc. are unemployed (June, 1990 Stats
Canada info).

FACT: Welfare rates are about half the poverty line (from 47% to

64%).

FACT: Rents take up over 50% of income for over 20,000 households
in Vancouver (Vancouver social planning dept., 1988).

FACT: Between 1979 and 1987 poverty for these B. Cc. groups has
increased: young households (from 28 to 42 per cent poor);
children (from 12 to 18 per cent poor); families (from 11 to 15 per
cent); single parent families (from 45 to 67 per cent).

FACT: Nearly 20 per cent of B. C. citizens live in poverty.

FACT: 143,000 B. C. children are poor.

FACT: The average poor family is $40C0 below the poverty line.
FACT: Poverty is the biggest indicator of poor health.

FACT: Poor babies in Canada have twice the infant mortality rate
as other babies.

FACT: Poor children get sick more and die more than other
children.

FACT: Poor adults live shorter lives than other adults.

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END LEGISLATED POVERTY BELIEVES: Welfare rates SHOUT DP ate Po to
the poverty line.

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