... for the BC government now to permit public servants to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media, but still not permit them to use email to communicate with members of the public seeking their help.
I have written extensively about the problems for people of low income who must choose between having phone service - landline and cell - and having access to the Internet. For such households, the choice is almost always Internet, given it delivers more bang for the buck. With an Internet-connected computer, headphones and a service like Skype, one can still make outgoing calls to other computers and to phones.
Alas, in Canada - but not in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Mexico ... and just about every other advanced country in the world - you still cannot obtain an online number. If you had an online number, then people with a phone could call you at your computer. But without benefit of a phone OR an online number, people wanting to call you by phone - and in the case of the BC government, having to call you by phone, since that's the only way public servants are permitted to communicate with you - you cannot be reached.
The only option for someone without a phone but with an Internet-enabled computer is email. And the BC government won't permit public servants to use email to communicate with clients, consumers, or whatever the hell we want to call those seeking service or information from the government.
The BC government has even cut off the ability of public servants to use email in special cases, or so I was told when I was trying to communicate with the people at SAFER. Had the public servant processing my application required clarification, he/she would have had to use snail mail, thus delaying my application's approval by at least two weeks. The ability to send emails, other than in-house, was disabled.
It's so damn frustrating. A simple fix by the CRTC, that it lift its silly 911 restriction, so that VOIP providers could issue online numbers with Canadian area codes, would make the problem go away in an instant. And this fix, in aid of greater access for low income households, wouldn't cost the government a damn thing.
I've SkypeOUT. I'd have SkypeIN if it was permitted in Canada. But with SkypeOUT I have listed in my contacts all the emergency numbers one might need. So what if 911 isn't accessible?!
Lift the damn restriction, CRTC! It's obvious the only reason you have it there is to protect Canada's big telecommunications companies.
[Cross-posted at Challenging the Commonplace]
Showing posts with label Services. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Services. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting...
Waiting is the biggest stressor* for me.
It hasn't helped that what I'm waiting for has meant my being unable to buy desperately needed things.
My remaining pants and jeans are falling off me, literally. As I walk to and from the grocery store, I'm having to keep hitching them up. When I go out, I look poor and that embarrasses me.
Recently, my fallen-apart comforter and last top sheet, plus the t-shirts I'd been wearing for nightwear had become so threadbare they were good for nothing but the dumpster. What bedding remains is a single fitted sheet to cover the mattress. I've been spending my nights trying to sleep with a single, light throw over me. It's no bigger than a bath towel.
The nights are getting colder; the heat hasn't been turned on yet. I'm so cold.
Then there's the reading glasses and the LCD/LED monitor that's needed to replace this ancient CRT one. The brightness levels of my monitor have so decayed that a person with good eyesight said everything looks blurry. Using this monitor has worsened my eyesight.
Why don't I get the things I need? What's the wait about?
I'm waiting for approval of my application to the BC government's Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER), a rental subsidy program for low-income seniors.
The SAFER office received my application on July 19th.
In anticipation over the last two years of applying for SAFER when I turned 60, I'd calculated and apportioned my savings to last until I would begin receiving the subsidy. This meant living on no more than $700 per month.
In my calculations, I assumed the processing of SAFER applications would take up to six weeks. Nothing on the BC Housing website suggested otherwise.
Six weeks didn't seem like such a bad assumption. There was, after all, the customary advisement of "up to six weeks" that I'd been told or read whenever I'd dealt with federal or provincial government services in the past.
Silly me. I was going by experiences back in the days of yore. Back in the halcyon days prior to the BC election in 2001, before the large budget and public service cuts done by the Campbell government.
The middle of August came and went and I'd still had no word from SAFER, not even acknowledgement of receipt of my application. So I called their office using Skype and was told to expect to receive my first payment at the end of September. By that time SAFER would owe me three months' worth of payments, which would total approximately $1,000.
Panic set in, but I eventually coped. I began visiting the food bank more frequently and cutting even further on my 'discretionary' spending - to about $80 per month. By 'discretionary', I mean everything else other than rent, hydro and cable (internet only).
With three weeks having passed since I'd checked with SAFER, I called again on September 3rd. Now I was told that they were about "four weeks behind in processing" and were still working on the applications from the middle of June. Ergo, I should not expect to receive payment until "at least [the last working day of] October." I asked if 'at least' really meant 'not until the end of November'. The man restated "the end of October," without the qualifier.
So now I'm scared and I don't trust that I'll see a SAFER payment the end of October either.
All my best-laid plans - to make my savings last not just until the SAFER payments would begin, but to stretch them until I turned 65 and qualified for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement - look to have been for nought. With the punishingly low interest rates, (especially punishing for people dependent on their savings), my savings over the past while have been earning very little. In June, I did what I could and put most of my money into two non-redeemable term deposits. The rest, $2,700, went into a redeemable (after 90 days) term deposit; starting the 15th of this month, it's to be divvied out in 10 monthly payments of $270.
You do the math:
* CPP payment: $295.55
* Savings: $270.00
* Total monthly: $565.55
Rent just went up: $501. Shaw internet service just went up: $52.64.
Forget about hydro, food, monitors, reading glasses, warm bedding, sleep wear, pants that fit.
No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to make things work, it never seems to be enough.
When you live so close to the edge, there's no room to accommodate government 'service delays'.
Thank you, Gordon Campbell, for approving all those cutbacks to BC's public service.
*On Saturday I bought more St. John's Wort. It's an expense I can ill afford; but I also cannot afford the toll this stress is taking on my body and my mind. I've been too ready to erupt lately. Kiltie and Brodie are affected by the tension. Time to do something about it.
It hasn't helped that what I'm waiting for has meant my being unable to buy desperately needed things.
My remaining pants and jeans are falling off me, literally. As I walk to and from the grocery store, I'm having to keep hitching them up. When I go out, I look poor and that embarrasses me.
Recently, my fallen-apart comforter and last top sheet, plus the t-shirts I'd been wearing for nightwear had become so threadbare they were good for nothing but the dumpster. What bedding remains is a single fitted sheet to cover the mattress. I've been spending my nights trying to sleep with a single, light throw over me. It's no bigger than a bath towel.
The nights are getting colder; the heat hasn't been turned on yet. I'm so cold.
Then there's the reading glasses and the LCD/LED monitor that's needed to replace this ancient CRT one. The brightness levels of my monitor have so decayed that a person with good eyesight said everything looks blurry. Using this monitor has worsened my eyesight.
Why don't I get the things I need? What's the wait about?
I'm waiting for approval of my application to the BC government's Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters (SAFER), a rental subsidy program for low-income seniors.
The SAFER office received my application on July 19th.
In anticipation over the last two years of applying for SAFER when I turned 60, I'd calculated and apportioned my savings to last until I would begin receiving the subsidy. This meant living on no more than $700 per month.
In my calculations, I assumed the processing of SAFER applications would take up to six weeks. Nothing on the BC Housing website suggested otherwise.
Six weeks didn't seem like such a bad assumption. There was, after all, the customary advisement of "up to six weeks" that I'd been told or read whenever I'd dealt with federal or provincial government services in the past.
Silly me. I was going by experiences back in the days of yore. Back in the halcyon days prior to the BC election in 2001, before the large budget and public service cuts done by the Campbell government.
The middle of August came and went and I'd still had no word from SAFER, not even acknowledgement of receipt of my application. So I called their office using Skype and was told to expect to receive my first payment at the end of September. By that time SAFER would owe me three months' worth of payments, which would total approximately $1,000.
Panic set in, but I eventually coped. I began visiting the food bank more frequently and cutting even further on my 'discretionary' spending - to about $80 per month. By 'discretionary', I mean everything else other than rent, hydro and cable (internet only).
With three weeks having passed since I'd checked with SAFER, I called again on September 3rd. Now I was told that they were about "four weeks behind in processing" and were still working on the applications from the middle of June. Ergo, I should not expect to receive payment until "at least [the last working day of] October." I asked if 'at least' really meant 'not until the end of November'. The man restated "the end of October," without the qualifier.
So now I'm scared and I don't trust that I'll see a SAFER payment the end of October either.
All my best-laid plans - to make my savings last not just until the SAFER payments would begin, but to stretch them until I turned 65 and qualified for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement - look to have been for nought. With the punishingly low interest rates, (especially punishing for people dependent on their savings), my savings over the past while have been earning very little. In June, I did what I could and put most of my money into two non-redeemable term deposits. The rest, $2,700, went into a redeemable (after 90 days) term deposit; starting the 15th of this month, it's to be divvied out in 10 monthly payments of $270.
You do the math:
* CPP payment: $295.55
* Savings: $270.00
* Total monthly: $565.55
Rent just went up: $501. Shaw internet service just went up: $52.64.
Forget about hydro, food, monitors, reading glasses, warm bedding, sleep wear, pants that fit.
No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to make things work, it never seems to be enough.
When you live so close to the edge, there's no room to accommodate government 'service delays'.
Thank you, Gordon Campbell, for approving all those cutbacks to BC's public service.
*On Saturday I bought more St. John's Wort. It's an expense I can ill afford; but I also cannot afford the toll this stress is taking on my body and my mind. I've been too ready to erupt lately. Kiltie and Brodie are affected by the tension. Time to do something about it.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Barriers: Strings
There's a supposition in this society with its gap-worn social safety net that the people who need assistance can and will access the services they need for everyday survival. However, there are barriers beyond the obvious that can prevent people from applying for help. For a subset of those in poverty, the reason lies far in their childhood, as was demonstrated in the WISE project.
It's about being beholden. If you've a background of longterm childhood abuse, particularly by a full-time parent or guardian, then you've learned never to ask for help, to fear asking for help, and never to accept gifts. You've learned that if you do, there are always strings attached. You've learned that if you tell other people and ask for their help, they won't believe you and things will only get worse.
Just raising your voice can be difficult. For my first 16 years, barely a word passed my lips.
You also work hard not to need. If you fail in that, then you may be tempted to ask for help. And if you need, then you are somehow deficient and therefore unworthy of help anyway. This is another lesson you have learned.
Leaving those years behind is rarely possible when the abuse was sustained over your developmental years. You absorb that lesson so deep that it reaches into your DNA, and no matter how hard you try later to tell yourself it's OK, even attempting to accept help causes severe reactions. I can go catatonic and at other times have lashed out at and dissociated from people who tried to help me.
You will do just about anything to avoid situations in which people have hands reaching out; even if it's to your own health's detriment. It's why the availability of paid work, or fair exchange, can be so critical to a life, the money being the least reason why someone may need to work.
In the WISE project, childhood trauma was shown to be the number one longterm predictor for future poverty for women.
Think about what that means in the context of the people you may know who are desperately poor and who you may want to help. If they say "I'd rather be homeless than on the system" or "I don't want to go to a shelter" or "Leave me alone," believe them and honour what they say. Despite all your good intentions you could do harm if you push. Instead, respect that such people know what's best for them, even if you don't agree. Their autonomy can be a greater need for personal survival than shelter or food or clothing. If you are fortunate and are the real deal, they may allow you time to become their friend and to gain their trust.
We can relate this issue to certain policy to address poverty.
If Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, Liberal Senator Art Eggleton, the former members of WISE, and other advocates for policy reform, were to have their way, Canadians would be guaranteed a basic annual income, obtained through a negative income tax. Such a pro-active program would replace our present, punitive, gap-worn welfare and other needs-based systems, and the people I describe would not be confronted with a situation for which they have no tools to cope.
It's about being beholden. If you've a background of longterm childhood abuse, particularly by a full-time parent or guardian, then you've learned never to ask for help, to fear asking for help, and never to accept gifts. You've learned that if you do, there are always strings attached. You've learned that if you tell other people and ask for their help, they won't believe you and things will only get worse.
Just raising your voice can be difficult. For my first 16 years, barely a word passed my lips.
You also work hard not to need. If you fail in that, then you may be tempted to ask for help. And if you need, then you are somehow deficient and therefore unworthy of help anyway. This is another lesson you have learned.
Leaving those years behind is rarely possible when the abuse was sustained over your developmental years. You absorb that lesson so deep that it reaches into your DNA, and no matter how hard you try later to tell yourself it's OK, even attempting to accept help causes severe reactions. I can go catatonic and at other times have lashed out at and dissociated from people who tried to help me.
You will do just about anything to avoid situations in which people have hands reaching out; even if it's to your own health's detriment. It's why the availability of paid work, or fair exchange, can be so critical to a life, the money being the least reason why someone may need to work.
In the WISE project, childhood trauma was shown to be the number one longterm predictor for future poverty for women.
Think about what that means in the context of the people you may know who are desperately poor and who you may want to help. If they say "I'd rather be homeless than on the system" or "I don't want to go to a shelter" or "Leave me alone," believe them and honour what they say. Despite all your good intentions you could do harm if you push. Instead, respect that such people know what's best for them, even if you don't agree. Their autonomy can be a greater need for personal survival than shelter or food or clothing. If you are fortunate and are the real deal, they may allow you time to become their friend and to gain their trust.
We can relate this issue to certain policy to address poverty.
If Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, Liberal Senator Art Eggleton, the former members of WISE, and other advocates for policy reform, were to have their way, Canadians would be guaranteed a basic annual income, obtained through a negative income tax. Such a pro-active program would replace our present, punitive, gap-worn welfare and other needs-based systems, and the people I describe would not be confronted with a situation for which they have no tools to cope.
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