| When Heather arrived in Calgary four years ago, the then-21-year-old had very little money and even less hope. What she did have was a three-year-old son, a high-risk pregnancy, a difficult struggle with depression and scars from an abusive relationship she left behind in another province.
When Heather (who asked that her real name not be used) applied for income assistance – better known as "welfare" – she was treated in a way that only added to her problems.
"They talk to you like you’re stupid, like you don’t know anything," she says. "By the time you leave their office, you feel really degraded, kind of worthless.
"They grilled me. They told my parents that they were responsible for me even though they couldn’t afford me."
Heather eventually got the help she needed, but still has problems when she goes to what is now the Alberta Works office, which administers the province’s income assistance program.
"They still give you hassles and threaten to cut you off," she says.
Social workers in Calgary say Heather’s story is far from unique; in fact, it’s a story they encounter on an regular basis. A social worker will try to get someone back on their feet by letting them know about the assistance programs available. But at the Alberta Works offices, the applicant often runs into problems.
One community social worker in the city’s northwest says the situation is so bad that many of her clients are scared to even go there.
"A lot of people really need those services, but would rather eat less in order to save themselves the humiliation," says the social worker, who spoke under condition of anonymity. "It’s really hard for them because they’re struggling with confidence and self-esteem issues and then they get cut down when they go there."
She says it’s not uncommon for staff at Alberta Works to make quips like "Why don’t you go and find a job?" – even to clients who are in crisis situations.
All Alberta Works staff are expected to treat clients "in a courteous and professional manner," says department spokesperson Gwen Vanderdeen-Pachke.
"If people do have complaints like that, then what they can do when they’re at the office there is they can ask to talk to a supervisor," she says. "And if that doesn’t alleviate their concern, they can ask to talk to a manager."
But filing a complaint higher up the ranks is often the last thing people have on their minds when they’re in crisis situations. Heather says as a result of her high-risk pregnancy, "everything was more emotional" for her when she was applying for income assistance.
"Oftentimes people who are in distress are not in a state of mind to be able to fight the system, so to speak," says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of Public Interest Alberta.
He says the way people are treated at the offices is indicative of a larger problem in Alberta’s approach to social support.
"It’s no secret that provincial government policy is to discourage people from trying to get any form of social assistance," says Moore-Kilgannon. "Particularly in the 1990s when they cut back on social services… they instituted a number of policies that put up barriers to people getting the support that they’re entitled to."
The province’s income assistance program also went through a major administrative change in March of 2004. Three provincial programs – Supports for Independence (which handled income assistance), Skills Development Program and Widow’s Pension – were merged to form Alberta Works. The province said the idea was to increase the effectiveness of the programs and to give people more options.
"On one level, that sounds great," says Moore-Kilgannon of the merger. "The proof, though, is in the pudding as to whether or not people are still falling through the cracks. And we certainly hear lots of anecdotal evidence that that is indeed what’s happening."
The merger also marked a change in hiring practices. Previously, most employees of Supports for Independence had some training in social work. Under Alberta Works, there is now "a greater variety of backgrounds for a greater variety of options," according to Vanderdeen-Pachke.
Alberta Works’s work-focused philosophy has raised more than a few eyebrows among those who think the program has too much of a "go and help yourself" approach to social assistance.
"The whole focus of Alberta Works is to provide what we call a hand up," says Vanderdeen-Pachke. "The fact is that we do think that people would rather be working. So if we can provide them more services and a greater ability to have a job, then that’s what we’re going to do. And from that point of view, we don’t want people to be on income support if there’s other ways that they can be helped."
But for more than one-third of people on income assistance, work isn’t an option. More than 11,000 of the approximately 28,000 Albertans who receive income assistance are unable to work, and many social workers are concerned that the strong focus on jobs creates another roadblock for them.
"It’s a way for government to reduce their costs," says Moore-Kilgannon. "But what happens is the costs are reduced on the backs of the people who are just unaware, rather than on good fiscal management. It’s not just for welfare recipients, but it’s a story that’s there for seniors and similarly in other areas as well." |
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