Govt Programs

Just another little ditty on some Government Programs that are extremely wasteful of taxpayer dollars.

Case in point: At my daycare center, there is a mother who receives childcare subsidy of over $500 a month towards her daycare fees, leaving her with a parent portion of $64. 

However, that $64 is paid for by the Social Services wing of the government.

Keep in mind that the Federal Govt gives her $100 a month for her child in the UCCB program (Universal Child Care Benefit). In other words, the Feds already give her $36 a month MORE than she needs to pay for her own portion of the daycare bill.

So WHY is social services/Welfare paying for that? Tax payers are footing her entire daycare bill each and every month as well as giving her a $100 bonus on top each month. WHAT?

This happens a LOT. She also lives for FREE in Community Housing because the $250 rent is paid by the welfare system. She also receives about $400 towards food, clothing, and other essentials every month from Welfare.

AND she gets just under $500 a month through the CCTB (Canadian Child Tax Benefit) program. She does not work even though her son is in daycare every day Monday to Friday. 

What is going on? I am all for helping people out, remember I was a single parent of two for many years. But this takes the cake. No wonder these programs are draining money left and right. Why on earth should welfare be paying the $64 when the mom gets $100 from the Feds? That alone adds up hugely over a year, especially when you wonder how many others are receiving this same 'benefit'.

It also makes me think back 10 years when I was a single mom of one 2 year old boy. I made $6.50 an hour, did NOT get housing allowance, did NOT get alberta health care premium, did NOT get Alberta Family Tax Credit, got a very small GST rebate eventually, half the CCTB people get now, and had to pay $125 a month for daycare (parent portion), paid over $500 a month for my rent, paid for my own phone, electricity, home contents insurance, cable, and internet , groceries, etc - the only help I received was the much smaller daycare subsidy. I paid for all of that while making $6.50 an hour. Now minimum wage is much higher, subsidy is much higher, CCTB, UCCB, GST rebates, AFTC etc are all higher, Alberta Health Care is free - and yet we are still finding parents who are getting far more money than they should from all the various programs. Is it any wonder things are a mess and money is being spent like water? There needs to be a major overhaul of the entire system, there really does. People are learning to live on government handouts and why on earth would they 'strive' to do it on their own when they get SO much for free. What kind of incentive is that to get out there and get off the system? Who would want to push aside welfare in these circumstances? All it does is create a reliance on govt, a welfare state - and I am seeing it more and more as the years tick by. It's pretty sad.