Leaving
Welfare for Work?
Questions
& Answers
1. According to the Provincial Government, "Since 1995, approximately
620,000 Ontarians have left the welfare rolls and found the dignity that
comes with a job." Is this true?
No. This number merely represents size of the drop in the social assistance caseload since 1995. This, in turn, is a function both of people leaving social assistance (for a variety of reasons, including being kicked-off for not meeting the extremely complex eligibility requirements) and fewer people qualifying in the first place. The number says nothing about how many people actually left for employment and, of those that did, how many found work that can in any way be associated with "dignity".
2. Does the Province monitor what happens to people when they leave Ontario Works?
The province does not systematically monitor the prospects of former Ontario Works recipients. However, it did conduct two "exit surveys" of people who left assistance in 1996 and 1997. These surveys, however, were conducted prior to the implementation of Ontario Works.
Both surveys had serious methodological flaws, the largest being that a high proportion of potential respondents did not participate, either because they refused, could not be found, or did not have a telephone to complete the surveys. As a result, the surveys were biased in favour of the relatively more "successful" ex-recipients.
Even with this bias, the results were not impressive. While the most recent of the two surveys found that almost 60% of respondents left welfare for "employment related reasons", it also found that 20% of these respondents were no longer working by the time the survey was conducted. Of those people employed at the time of the survey, over 30% were working in part-time jobs, 28% were working in temporary or casual jobs and the average hourly wage was about $9.
3. Are there any other studies tracking people who left welfare in Ontario?
Yes. The City of Toronto has also conducted two surveys. The first was conducted in 1997 and the second surveyed individuals who left Toronto's Ontario Works caseload in mid 2001. Like the provincial surveys, the City of Toronto surveys were telephone-based and suffered from many of the same methodological problems - particularly the potential over-representation of success stories.
Like the provincial surveys, these studies do not paint a rosy picture of life after welfare. While 56% of respondents who left OW in mid 2001 had left for a job, 68% of respondents with employment had annual earnings below the poverty line, less than half of employed respondents reported any job-related benefits and approximately one third worked in non-permanent jobs. Significantly, 57% of respondents felt that their financial situation had not improved since leaving OW and a third felt that it had actually gotten worse! The 2001 survey also found that 17% of respondents who left OW returned within a year. The results of this study are particularly troubling as the survey was conducted at the tail end of an economic boom.
4. What is the "bottom line" of these surveys?
The surveys suggest that a substantial proportion of people who leave welfare leave for a job (of course, taking into account that we are probably getting the best case scenarios). On the other hand, of those who are working, many are stuck in low paying, part-time or temporary jobs with no benefits and a significant proportion ultimately end up back on social assistance. Thousands of people have left the welfare rolls to find the "dignity" of being cheap, throw-away labour for private sector businesses.
5. Why aren't the results better?
Since coming to power in 1995, the Ontario Progressive Conservative's clear priority with respect to welfare has been reducing the caseload. As a result, reforms have been aimed entirely at getting people off of welfare quickly, not eliminating the conditions which create poverty.
The stated philosophy behind Ontario Works is "the shortest route to employment". As a result, the employment supports associated with OW are only supports in the most minimal sense. Their only purpose is to transfer people from welfare to a job, any job, as rapidly as possible. Little attention is paid to education and skill development. For most participants, "Ontario Works is little more than a high-pressure job search program."
OW merely pushes recipients into the first job they can find job with no concern for how low-paying, insecure or marginal it is. Not surprisingly, most former recipients cannot escape poverty and many ultimately return to welfare.
6. What should the Province do?
The Province must end mandatory "workfare" and its focus on the "shortest route to employment". It needs to establish an employment supports program that is flexible and can be tailored to meets the needs and aspirations of individual recipients. Rather than focusing on getting people off welfare as quickly as possible, the employment supports program should provide recipients with subsidized childcare, individualized training, education and other supports so that they access the kind of employment they want - employment that pays well, is permanent and provides good benefits. Critical to this is supporting recipients who choose to pursue post-secondary education.
At the same time, the Province must increase the minimum wage to at least $10/hour and strengthen employment standards legislation (and the enforcement of that legislation) so that employment can actually move people out of poverty.
Source: John Fraser, Income Security Advocacy Centre
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Page last updated Sept. 18, 2003