Welfare system ineffective, study concludes

Poorest people in B.C. left scrambling to survive, move out of poverty
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008

VANCOUVER - The province's welfare system makes people homeless, sometimes forces women to turn to prostitution and relies on food banks and charities to help provide the basics to its clients, according to an unprecedented in-depth study of welfare recipients.

The two-year study, partly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, tracked a small group of people who are part of what the provincial government decided in 2002 was a serious problem that had to be tackled - people who stay on welfare a long time but are classified as "expected to work."

Researchers found that, contrary to government claims that its new welfare policies helped people get out of poverty, almost none of the 45 welfare recipients they tracked between 2004 to 2006 ended up better off.

Read the rest here

See also Poverty Built into BC's System