Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Hopelessness “Give someone a break”
Submitted to the New Brunswick provincial Government 2006-12-06
Presently in New Brunswick there are a substantial number of welfare recipients of which many feel tripped in the cycle of poverty and hopelessness for themselves and their families.
There will always be those who will need society’s support to have a minimum standard of living, in many cases due to circumstances beyond their control. On the other hand there those who would love to have the opportunity to participate in some type of program or effort through which they could improve their standard of living and possibly help them reach the point where they can terminate their dependency on the Social Services of the province.
With the recent political enthusiasm to help the Non – Profit organizations(Times Transcript 2006-12-06) which help those in need, there is a also an opportunity to have welfare recipients help themselves in conjunction with the Social Services department and the private sector industries.
Due to many economic circumstances there is a shortage of short term and part-time workers in the province New Brunswick to such a point where the importation of temporary workers from Russia, Mexico and Cuba has become necessary for many food producers to harvest and process their products.
At the present time in New Brunswick a welfare recipient is penalized should he or she have the ambition to attempt to work at one of those short term or temporary jobs to obtain a little extra support for those they may be responsible. It is the view of many that the best way to help someone get ahead in life is to provide them the opportunity to do so and presently New Brunswick has that great chance to help many.
The concept of allowing a welfare recipient to earn extra income equivalent to a predetermined percentage of the assistance they receive from the government (without penalty) would not only be a benefit to the welfare recipient but also to the overall economy. This new type of initiative would assist private enterprises, who require short term and part time workers at different times throughout the year, by providing a new local source of labour. This would reduce the number of foreign workers required and would prevent large amounts of labour dollars from leaving the province.
By allowing welfare recipients to earn extra dollars to supplement their government cheque without penalty would offer the opportunity for someone to start raising the standard of living for those he or she may be supporting. In many cases it would not take much new income to benefit many households and possibly put a family on the road to independence and self-sufficiently over the long term.
By implementing such a program the government would be assisting those on the welfare rolls at no greater cost other than the administration of the program. Those willing to participate in such a program could eventually become independent of the welfare system and that is where the government really starts to save some of the thousands of dollars it costs to support a recipient. Even if some of the recipients should remain on the welfare roll there is the good possibility the extra income will raise their standard of living again without extra cost to the government.
By providing the many private enterprises with a new local source of short and part time labour would allow them to possibly train and evaluate the participants over a complete season with the hope some or all of the participants would be able to obtain full time employment while raising their standard of living during that period.
By implementing such a non punitive program the government would allow the heads of families and some of its’ members to have a chance to work, possibly learn new skills and develop for the future without fear of loosing their necessary support until they reach the point where they can stand on their own. Not only would the families benefit from such a program but those in the potato, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and apple harvesting and processing industries, are just a few examples, would benefit as well. There are numerous other industries that would see the program as beneficial from a staffing point of view.
This program concept is not meant to make people rich but can be used to raise the standard of living on a day to day basis of some of those who in our society who need the greatest amount of assistance at minimal cost to the government support system. Changing the welfare rules is not very expensive and by doing so would create numerous opportunities and incentive for willing participants to improve their lifestyle.
Realizing there are many other administration and organizational aspects to consider there is a feeling this type of program should be given a chance in an effort to determine how many positive results could be accomplished for those in need of a chance to improve their lives and those of their dependants.
Footnote; the writer is a person who has been through dozens of crisis’s, been broke financially numerous times and has returned to a fair standard of living in his lifetime and has always grateful to those who reached out to him starting as far back 1963 with the construction industry. Although he understands there are those who will get what they can for nothing and remain where they are, he also realizes there are those who would take full advantage of any opportunities offered.
The proposed concept will not empty the welfare rolls but it will provide a few with that break in life they may need to become happier, healthier and productive in a supportive and generous society.
On the side of hardship the writer has felt the results of enterprises taking advantage of the less fortunate. Therefore he emphasizes the need to ensure those who would employ those seeking to benefit themselves in a willing and honest manner are protected from those who would take advantage of the program participants’ situation which leave them open to different kinds of abuse that would cause participants to withdraw or quite the program.
