There are so many businesses in town will not take you, um … the dentist won’t take you if you’ve got a dental card [from social assistance]. Optometrists will not take you if you’re receiving social assistance because they don’t make enough money….It’s very, ah, it’s disheartening and it’s humiliating when you go into ask for a service or ask for help and they say no I’m sorry we don’t, we don’t accept people on social assistance, we don’t accept people on welfare.
Balancing the just enough and emergencies
All of sudden you have to become, this huge financial wizard in order to make sure that you have enough for rent and clothes and food and that doesn’t even take in account emergencies or any extras that come up for school… And then the other thing too, is that because social assistance is a month behind, if you make too much one month, then they’ll cut, they’ll cut you back more.
