The extreme poverty of life on welfare hinders many peoples' efforts to find a job. Recipients are finding it increasingly hard to maintain decent housing, feed and clothe themselves. For many people the result is an increasingly unstable and marginal existence, deteriorating physical and mental health. Typical rents in most parts of Ontario are beyond what social assistance recipients can afford. Most recipients are forced to divert significant amounts of income away from other necessities such as food, clothing, transportation or a telephone in order to pay for shelter.
Many people regularly go hungry.
Two-thirds of food bank recipients on social assistance report going without food at least one day a month. Most of these people go without food one day a week or more, leading to concerns amongst health professionals about malnutrition. Many recipients can no longer afford basics like telephones and transportation, let alone clothes for interviews or starting a job. Although Ontario Works is supposed to provide this kind of assistance, many of our informants were refused or never told this kind of assistance was available. Basic necessities, that people could have afforded prior to the rate cuts, are now items of discretionary assistance that people are forced to beg for.