...of these interviews are used 1) to develop a better understanding of who utilizes income assistance in the inner city; 2) to identify what sorts of problems and difficulties they encounter with the welfare system and 3) to remedy some of the pervasive myths of welfare use that continue to dominate policy discussions in this area. The paper concludes that restructuring of welfare administration will do little to reduce reliance on welfare by individuals in the inner city. Rather, broader structural issues such as economic development, education, health care, and child care are critical for moving people from welfare to work.

Keywords: Social assistance, poverty, welfare reform, advocacy

Resume

Cet article explore des mythes d'assistance sociale par l'objectif des experiences des recipients d'assistance sociale dans le centre urbain de Winnipeg. Comme le groupe des recipients d'assistance sociale ont ete interviewes et ont pose des questions sur leur confiance dans le bien-etre et leur experience avec la bureaucratie d'assistance sociale. Les resultats de ces entrevues sont employes a 1) pour developper un meilleur arrangement de qui utilise l'aide de revenu dans le centre urbain; 2) pour identifier quelles sortes de problemes et de difficultes ils rencontrent avec le systeme d'assistance sociale et 3) pour remedier des mythes dominants de l'utilisation d'assistance sociale qui continuent a dominer des discussions de politique dans ce secteur. Le papier conclut que la restructuration de l'administration d'assistance sociale fera peu pour reduire la confiance dans le bien-etre par des individus dans le centre urbain. Plutot, de plus larges issues structurales telles que le developpement economique, l'education, la sante, et l'assistance a l'enfance sont critiques pour les personnes mobiles du bien-etre pour fonctionner.

Mots cles: Eassistance sociale, pauvrete, reforme d'assistance sociale, le conseil

For residents of the inner city access to state income assistance programs is vital. These programs provide an important source of income support for many inner city residents. Proposals for welfare reform, therefore, have a disproportionate impact on inner city residents. Restructuring of state welfare whether it is simply the cutting of benefit rates or the development of workfare schemes--will significantly affect the lives of many inner city residents. While there have been numerous studies of welfare systems, and no shortage of recommendations for change and restructuring, relatively few studies (or policy makers for that matter) have asked welfare recipients for their opinions about how the system operates. The 1989 report of the Ontario Social Assistance Review Committee entitled Transitions was considered groundbreaking for having working groups made up of social assistance recipients and for incorporating into the final report the views of recipients. The framing of the Committee's recommendations around these "voices" distinguished it from many such policy documents. (1)

The failure to "listen" to those who rely on social assistance reflects a number of underlying assumptions and attitudes about the nature of welfare and the nature of those who need it. Our welfare system is underpinned by the notion that the poor can be distinguished between those who are deserving and those who are not. Single parents, for example, often receive better treatment within the welfare system than single individuals. Their parental status makes them more deserving of state assistance, while the single individual is considered someone who is able to work, but chooses not to. Consequently they are seen as undeserving and their benefits are often extremely minimal and well below what is required for a decent standard of living. It is the intention of this paper to examine some of these assumptions through the development of a profile of welfare recipients in Winnipeg's inner city. The objective behind the paper is threefold: 1) to develop a better understanding of who utilizes income assistance in the inner city; 2) to identify what sorts of problems/difficulties they encounter with the welfare system and 3) to remedy some of the pervasive myths of welfare use that continue to dominate policy discussions in this area.

Within the broader structure of the welfare state it is fair to say that those who rely on social assistance programs--those programs aimed at the most needy and destitute--are generally characterized as undeserving. This results in a number of assumptions about welfare recipients. While generally these assumptions are well known and hardly need repetition, it is worth briefly noting some of the most significant. (2) First, understanding the poor as undeserving transforms poverty from a structural and collective problem to an individual problem. Consequently, it is often assumed that welfare recipients are lazy, able but unwilling to work, and therefore sympathy for their plight is unwarranted. The "welfare cheat" becomes a pervasive image that defines the structure of welfare programs. Even those who are considered relatively "deserving" within this structure do not escape this characterization. So-called "spouse in the house" rules and media portrayals of single mothers as individuals who deliberately get pregnant to increase their benefits are examples. As a result, it is assumed that coercive measures are required in order to "force" those on welfare to look for work. (Shragge1997; Sheldrick 1998)

Empirical studies have revealed that many of the assumptions made about welfare recipients are, in fact, false. They are myths. (Law 1997) Despite this, they continue to inform much of the policy work that is done around the welfare question. In the context of Winnipeg's inner city, our survey of welfare recipients demonstrates a range of structural impediments that makes it difficult for them to move from the welfare system to paid employment. Many of the assumptions about the individual nature of the "welfare problem", therefore, are unsupportable.

These assumptions about the undeserving nature of welfare recipients, however, also affect the way in which policy has been developed in this area. Policy analysis in this field often does not integrate the actual experiences of welfare recipients into the policy mix. (Sheldrick 1998) Rather, the voices of experts--social workers, policy analysts, welfare case workers, etc.,--are privileged. Generally welfare systems are structured in an extremely undemocratic fashion and it is assumed by policy makers that welfare recipients have little knowledge or experience that is worthwhile. Consequently, they are disenfranchised from participating in discussions about the nature of welfare policy or how welfare should be delivered. They are frequently treated in a manner that is little more than the mass processing of people by welfare officials. Those officials have little capacity to engage the individual in creative solutions to their problems, and even less inclination to try. Many welfare offices appear to be little more than a bureaucratic version of the Dickensian poor house. The processes may be different--paper and forms may have replaced forced labour--but the despair and alienation created by these administrative structures is very similar. That despair is reflected in the responses of people as to how dealing with welfare officials made them feel.

There are a number of advantages to hearing about these issues from the perspective of the welfare recipient. First, the experience of the service recipient and those responsible for delivering the service may vary considerably. The problems and difficulties that a welfare case worker might identify may not be the same as those that are of concern to the welfare recipient. In other instances both might identify the same problem, but see two completely different solutions. At the end of the day, however, it is the welfare recipient whose life is most profoundly affected and structured by the welfare system. That is not to say that the opinions of front line workers and policy analysts are not important. It is to say, however, that this is only one perspective on a complex problem. While the welfare recipient may lack technical expertise about the way the system operates, they may possess considerable social expertise from living within the system. This is a valuable body of knowledge that needs to be documented and incorporated into policy discussions on this issue. (3)

This paper is divided into three sections. The first section outlines the methodology employed in the study. The second looks at the question of why people are on welfare. It documents welfare recipient's own understanding of their situation, with an assessment of their educational background and work history. It also discusses what obstacles exist to the successful transition from welfare to work. In this way we confront the broad myths that unemployment and poverty in the inner city are individual problems and document the structural nature of the problem. The third section looks at the experience of individuals within the welfare system. The so-called "welfare cheat" is often portrayed as a cunning operator who is adept at manipulating the welfare system. The evidence, however, indicates that individuals are generally ill-informed of the complexities of the welfare system and many of their difficulties with welfare officials stem from poor communication and a lack of understanding. This image of the welfare recipient points to the need for greater education and advocacy on behalf of welfare recipients, rather than greater prosecution, surveillance and coercion.

METHODOLOGY

The intention of the project was to generate a random sample of welfare recipients who would be interviewed. The interview respondents were selected from amongst the clients of a grass-roots organization known as the Low Income Intermediary Project (LIIP). This group provides advice and advocacy services for welfare recipients. Interview respondents were selected to be representative of the major categories of welfare recipients. Initially case files were reviewed and divided according to the primary categories of income assistance recipients: single mothers, disabled welfare recipients, and single employable welfare recipients. From these groups a random sample of clients was generated. Efforts were made to ensure equal numbers of men and women. In addition, inner-city Winnipeg has a very large urban Aboriginal population, so the initial sample was designed to also include equal numbers of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal respondents. In total 95 welfare recipients were interviewed. (4)

In the end the interview sample was not rigorously random in nature. In addition to those selected to be interviewed from amongst the LIIP case files, a number of individuals simply appeared at the LIIP offices seeking to be interviewed. Current clients who learned of the project were also often interested in participating. Interviewees were paid a small honorarium of $20.00 and this led to a number of people coming for interviews who were as much interested in the money as they were the project. Some people were simply not interviewed. However, if individuals fit within the parameters of the research project they were interviewed. In total 62 women and 33 men were interviewed. As well, 68 of the interviewees were Aboriginal and 27 were non-Aboriginal.

These figures, in part, reflect the nature of welfare in the inner city, as well as the nature of LIIP's client base. The population of the inner city is increasingly Aboriginal, and so it is no surprise that Aboriginal people make up a considerable percentage of those from the inner city in receipt of benefits. As well, it appeared that women were...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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