Carl DeLine

Alberta’s single poor should let their MLAs know exactly how they feel about the cutback in welfare payments as of June 1, suggests the chief spokesman for Alberta social workers.

Margaret Dewhurst, president of the 1,000-member Alberta Association of Social Workers, said Thursday “people on welfare are voters too.

“And we are encouraging them to have the guts to tell their MLAs and Social Services Minister Connie Osterman how they will be affected by these cutbacks.”

Osterman has announced that about 20,000 “single employable” short-term welfare recipients across the province will receive $326 a month as of June 1, or a 26 percent rollback from the current $441, while “single long-term” recipients will be cut back $80, or 16.5 percent, to $404 a month.

But single-parent families will get $21 more a month.

Carl DeLine, spokesman for the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank, said he has agreed with Osterman to report to her any noticeable changes in demand for food hampers after the new rates take effect.

At present, the bank distributes about 50 hampers a week, or less than half the number handed out last May and June.

“About 20 percent of the food goes to single persons, and we are going to ask all of them whether they are on social assistance,” DeLine said.

He said random calls to 33 Calgary landlords this week showed the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now $325 a month, while two-bedroom units are about $415. Osterman has fixed the new rent allowance for singles at $180, or $110 less than the current $290.

Some landlords indicated they may drop their rents to single welfare recipients, but others said they wouldn’t, said DeLine.

He and Dewhurst said the minister’s suggestion that singles should double up and share the rent may look good on paper, but is probably not going to work.

“Forcing people to live together will only result in many unfortunate mismatches and aggravate the situation,” said Dewhurst.

Jake Kuiken, vice-president of the social workers’ association, said cutbacks in allowances “look like an under-handed way of forcing people into the new work-for-welfare scheme the government wants to introduce.”

Careers Minister Rick Orman will announce details of the scheme here Monday, his office said Thursday.

Kuiken was sceptical, saying “work-for-welfare hasn’t worked whenever it has been tried in the past because it doesn’t involve meaningful work, the jobs are very short-term and the pay is marginal.”

Ald. Barb Scott, who chairs the city council committee that handles grants to community agencies, said the reduced allowances are “totally insensitive to the needs of low-income people.”

Originally published March 27, 1987 by the Calgary Herald (Calgary, AB), credited to Dick Schuler.