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Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario
E-mail welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/
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Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario
E-mail welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
I would say that your spirit is well-intentioned, but your message won't resonate because you are directing it to the wrong recipient.
I'm surprised that this is the directive that you have been offering $100 for. I have personally made my clients aware of these changes since the day they came into effect. It certainly was no secret where I work.
Funds are still available for Community Placement (workfare) should someone benefit from them and make a request for them. The administration of those funds are still built into the computer and issuing them certainly doesn't raise any flags or draw negative attention.
It is my experience that since the Liberals came to power, I have issued far more benefits than under the Tories. Whether they are through Community Placement or Employment Placement doesn't matter as long as someone gets them.
The renumbering of the directives? I have no idea why, but I have never felt that the ministry was hiding anything and I always try and look for that type of thing.
The one sore spot that I did notice was the tightening of Community Start-Up Benefits, when it was changed from once per 12 calendar months to once per 24 calendar months. That is proving very difficult for people with outrageous utility costs. Other than that, I have been issuing more benefits for expenses related to employment programming, not less.
In the 2008 version you will notice a benefit called Other Employment and Employment Assistance Benefit. This is actually the old Employment Start-Up Benefit, but they renamed it so the eligibility is more flexible. There is a different cost-sharing for municipal/provincial funding for some of these benefits, and renaming them makes it easier to issue the money.
To make a long story short, the ability to issue the benefits is technically still there. We are no longer forced to submit people to a workfare style of welfare, and it appears that the Liberals are trying to phase out mandatory volunteering altogether. If someone chooses to volunteer the benefits are still there. And if the government mandates that they do it, then the government must provide the resources to do so, because the SBT would laugh the government out of the room on appeal for trying to force someone to do something without proper resources.
Keep in mind that the directives are used to interpret the legislation. If someone is having a hard time wringing participation benefits out of your local office, it is because of how your local office chooses to interpret the directives and legislation. I have met many other workers from other regional offices and each office has a different philosophy and tact regarding interpretation, some are far more anal in their reading of it than others.
The one glaring human rights violation that I see in regards to participation is the inability of OW recipients to bargain collectively:
http://www.sphre.org/campaigns/UN_Comm_EconimicSocialCultural.htm
I will comment on this shortly
Ron Payne
OW Bureaucrat said...
I would say that your spirit is well-intentioned, but your message won't resonate because you are directing it to the wrong recipient.
I'm surprised that this is the directive that you have been offering $100 for. I have personally made my clients aware of these changes since the day they came into effect. It certainly was no secret where I work.
Funds are still available for Community Placement (workfare) should someone benefit from them and make a request for them. The administration of those funds are still built into the computer and issuing them certainly doesn't raise any flags or draw negative attention.
It is my experience that since the Liberals came to power, I have issued far more benefits than under the Tories. Whether they are through Community Placement or Employment Placement doesn't matter as long as someone gets them.
The renumbering of the directives? I have no idea why, but I have never felt that the ministry was hiding anything and I always try and look for that type of thing.
The one sore spot that I did notice was the tightening of Community Start-Up Benefits, when it was changed from once per 12 calendar months to once per 24 calendar months. That is proving very difficult for people with outrageous utility costs. Other than that, I have been issuing more benefits for expenses related to employment programming, not less.
In the 2008 version you will notice a benefit called Other Employment and Employment Assistance Benefit. This is actually the old Employment Start-Up Benefit, but they renamed it so the eligibility is more flexible. There is a different cost-sharing for municipal/provincial funding for some of these benefits, and renaming them makes it easier to issue the money.
To make a long story short, the ability to issue the benefits is technically still there. We are no longer forced to submit people to a workfare style of welfare, and it appears that the Liberals are trying to phase out mandatory volunteering altogether. If someone chooses to volunteer the benefits are still there. And if the government mandates that they do it, then the government must provide the resources to do so, because the SBT would laugh the government out of the room on appeal for trying to force someone to do something without proper resources.
Keep in mind that the directives are used to interpret the legislation. If someone is having a hard time wringing participation benefits out of your local office, it is because of how your local office chooses to interpret the directives and legislation. I have met many other workers from other regional offices and each office has a different philosophy and tact regarding interpretation, some are far more anal in their reading of it than others.
The one glaring human rights violation that I see in regards to participation is the inability of OW recipients to bargain collectively:
http://www.sphre.org/campaigns/UN_Comm_EconimicSocialCultural.htm
9:40 PM
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