FRHD 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Deinstitutionalisation, Working Poor, Gentrification
29 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POVERTY AND THE FAMILY
• poverty
o history
▪ early European settlement
• poor depended on
o family
o private individuals
• government helped in only
o emergencies
▪ groceries
▪ clothing
▪ fuel vouchers
• not cash
o bad budgeting
o vices
• not enough
▪ social programs
• provincial and local
o 1867
▪ social safety net
▪ financial aid for workers and families with
disabilities
▪ other’s pesios
• eligibility depended on
o mom
o province criteria
▪ BC
▪ Husband:
▪ Tuberculosis sanatarium
▪ Mental hospital
▪ Prison
▪ Wife:
▪ Ill
▪ Disabled
▪ Widowed
• means test
o 1927
▪ old age pensions
• means test
• federal
o 1930
▪ financial support
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o 1942
▪ unemployment insurance
o 1944
▪ family allowances for kids up to 16
o 1952
▪ old age security
o 1956
▪ unemployment assistance
o 1966
▪ Canada and quebec pension plans for workers 65
and over
o 1972
▪ new unemployment insurance act
• universal coverage
• benefits
o 1974
▪ family allowance act
• increased benefit per kid
o 2006
▪ universal child care benefit program
o types
▪ absolute
• based on minimum amount of money required to ensure physical
survival
• examples
o basic needs poverty line
▪ cost of list of required basic needs
o market basket measure
▪ cost of a basket of goods
• accounts for regional variations
▪ relative
• based on standard of social well-being
• example
o statistics Canada low income cutoff
▪ poverty line set to level where family spend more
than 70% of income on basic needs
• accounts for
o family of 7
o community size
▪ problems
• cut-offs are
o arbitrary
o artificial
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o factors influencing impact
▪ depth
• amount income is below poverty line
o further below = more difficult
▪ breadth
• other aspects associated with poverty
o illiteracy
o poor health
o physical insecurity
▪ duration
• how long poverty lasts
o prolonged periods = more difficult
o who is poor
▪ number
• difficult to determine
o why
▪ depends on definition
▪ impossible to count homeless people who are poor
• fluctuate
o why
▪ economy fluctuations
• poverty levels
o mid to late 1970s
▪ decrease
o 1981
▪ increase
o 1981-
▪ decrease
o 1997
▪ increase
o 2007
▪ decrease
o late 2008
▪ increase
▪ group
• trends
o low rate
▪ two or more earner
▪ married
▪ common law
o high rate
▪ one earner
▪ single adult
find more resources at oneclass.com
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