Suppose you live in a small boom and bust community. You do
not have a paid job. You are not independently wealthy or retired or supported
financially by anyone. You do not have a car – how can you afford one? You are
not yet 65 years of age, but you are close. Your family does not live in this community,
actually that is one of the reasons you choose to live here. You are on BC
Benefits. As government policies have changed, you have qualified for disability
payments some years (due to a health condition that is embarrassing to discuss
with non-medical personnel) while other years you did not. The disability
classification means you cannot work and removes you from the job search
requirements. Personally, you find the term “disability” offensive and will
declare yourself able to work. You do work every day. You grow vegetables in
the community garden and preserve your produce. You teach people new to
preserving how you do it. You bake cookies, bread, buns and bannock for the
market garden. You are active and participate in community programs with events
and activities several days of the week. You willingly volunteer when people
are asked to commit to tasks.
Our society puts huge value on paid work. What you do for a
living becomes part of your identity and your self-esteem. It affects how and when
you move through communities and your relationships with others in your
community. It affects how you are welcomed and treated in most public and
business spaces. It affects what you do with your time, both in the job and off
the job. It definitely affects how much money you have to spend and to save. If
you are without paid work, you need to create your own reality, to find your
own ways to move in community and feel productive. Places where you are valued,
and where you can contribute.
Then it comes around again. Your name has come to the top of
the list and it is time to reapply for BC Benefits, time to prove you cannot
find suitable work, or that you have a disability.
Not much has changed in this community (still waiting for
the boom) since the last time you did a job search. Even a boom would not
change your situation. You take your same thin resume to the same enduring employers.
Not much has changed there either – except you are five years older. Over 60
years old, female, low literacy skills and not able to do heavy unskilled labour: there are no jobs
for you. Period. It would not matter how much you retrained. Employers take one
look at you and you know they will toss your resume in the garbage as soon as
you turn around. It is easy to recall how awful it felt last time you did this government
mandated job search; you still have raw patches. The piles of paperwork and
forms, the requirements for over the telephone conferences are all
overwhelming. And demoralizing. And humiliating. You keep your head down and
say yes, yes, yes. Never once do you ask the government worker to explain or ask
why they want to know. Why do they ask about abuse from 60 years previous if
they have nothing to offer to fix the pain of that monster resurfacing? Why do
they ask if you were poor as a child? Are they going to fix all this now? Or is
it just to make you feel raw, scarred, scared and demoralized? Never once do
you answer anything more than yes. Once all this is over, it will take another
year of support from the community programs before you will feel able to lift
up your head again.
So what is the point? Why do you have to jump through these
hoops and face this humiliation? Like every province and jurisdiction across
the country, British Columbia also has a system to address eligibility for
welfare payments and a plan to encourage as many people as possible to find
gainful employment. It is not always pleasant or comfortable – and that is
alright. The system functions impersonally, with criteria that dispassionately
assess the right to benefits. Societies
need people to be working; most welfare systems are demanding. And yet…
You are active, contributing and keeping yourself healthy.
You and your JobsBC worker both know there are no jobs for you. Worst case
scenario would be that you would get a job and then be fired when you failed to
physically meet the demands of the eight hour shifts five days per week. Or
when you become ill and rundown. What is the cost to the taxpayer of putting
your file in the active pile? How much is the government spending to torture
you, when everyone knows the outcome will be the same. Why do they ask the
humiliating questions about things they have no business asking?
Why do we allow the system to treat you so badly? Is there
not a more dignified way to review client cases?
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