Comment 39734

By Sara (registered) | Posted April 13, 2010 at 15:19:44

Is white bread cheaper than whole wheat bread? Is pop cheaper than milk? Is a fruit drink (ie water, sugar and fruit flavour) cheaper than 100% juice? Yes, Yes and Yes.

It's very common for those who have never been on social assistance to dismiss the hardships by trotting out how they could easily cope if they were living on welfare. But it is so insulting... Does anyone really think people are lying about what a struggle day to day life is?

There is very interesting research being done right now by Prof. Jim Dunn at McMaster to exactly address the point: does giving people more money, in this case better housing, improve their health? In one project he is tracking Hamiltonians on the Social Housing wait list and in an other he is tracking tenants of Toronto Social Housing moving into the new improved Regent Park buildings. His review of others findings in Britain shows that improvements in housing do improve people's health - but his will be the first large scale study of its kind in Canada.

In the sphere of welfare payments, a great example of data to support the argument that giving people more money (ie making them less poor) does improve their health is the work of Evelyn Forget in Manitoba. She studied the effects of a 1970s program in Dauphin Manitoba, which gave a basic annual income to all citizens. Her research shows that there was a decrease in hospitalizations and an improvements in mental health and children stayed in school longer than in communities where there was no basic annual income. http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/40308.html

Comment edited by Sara on 2010-04-13 14:23:13

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