Friends,

Below is an insightful letter to the editor (re the clawback of the
National
Child Benefit Supplement) written by Sally Palmer, Chair of the Social
Action Committee, Ontario Association of Social Workers, Hamilton &
District
Branch, (published in the Hamilton Spectator).

Please feel free to share with others... (I received a copy from Sally this
morning)...

To read about the legal challenge to the clawback, visit the OPICCO website
at http://www.opicco.org/feature2.htm

Barbara Anello
[log in to unmask]

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Hunger rides a money-go-round
RE: 'City's $100,000 Bails Out Desperate Food Banks,'

Letter to Editor, by Sally Palmer
Hamilton Spectator
Dec. 15, 12:23 EDT

(Dec. 6)

It must be a relief for the staff and users of food banks that they will
have more resources to feed hungry people, now that the city has turned
over
$100,000 from its emergency fund.

It is ironic, however, that this money came from the city's share of the
National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) money. This is federal money that
is given to families on social assistance, with the goal of reducing child
poverty.

If the families were allowed to keep the NCBS -- over $100 per month for
each child -- it is estimated that half of them could avoid coming to food
banks, as found in a client survey by the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

Unfortunately, the Mike Harris Conservatives were in power when the NCBS
began in 1998; they decided to treat this federal transfer as unearned
income and deduct it from the cheques they sent to recipients of social
assistance.

One of the motivations was to encourage "attachment to the workforce,"
which
is questionable logic, as about half the recipients of social assistance
have disabilities and many others are the mothers of preschool children.
The
City of Hamilton benefits from the clawback, as the province transfers 20
per cent of the savings to municipalities to be spent on children's
programs.

Consequently, we have the ridiculous situation of our government taking
money away from families, thereby increasing their levels of hunger, with
the consequent rise in demands on food banks, which are then bailed out
with
the money that was originally taken from the hungry families.

Although the city asserts that it spends the NCBS money on good programs
for
children, the need for these programs cannot be compared to the survival
needs (for food and shelter) of the children whose families are on social
assistance.

One program, for example, is funded to provide children with bicycle
helmets.

Toronto and London both responded to the provincial clawback by putting
their share of the clawback money into an emergency fund for families on
social assistance. Hamilton should show that it is a compassionate
community
by doing the same.

For more information about stopping the clawback, please call Jeff Wingard
at the Social Planning and Research Council, 905-522-1148 ext. 311.

-- Sally Palmer, Ontario Association of Social Workers, Hamilton & District
Branch

______________________________________________________

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