Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Keywords
lone mothers, social assistance, case workers, discretionary practices, rationing practices, supplementary benefits
Abstract
Previous research has illuminated the effects of the welfare reform in Canada post-1995. However, very little research has focused upon the ways welfare is delivered. Using four supplementary benefits available to social assistance recipients as the backdrop, this paper explores the discretionary practices employed in determining eligibility. Based on interviews with lone mothers and a focus group with social assistance case workers the data illuminates that a lone mother’s ability to access supplementary benefits is based upon rationing practices which may have little to do with her legitimate need and formal eligibility, such that practice, in the hands of caseworkers, contravenes the policy intention.
Faculty
Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (FHASS)
Volume
12
Issue
1
Version
Publisher's version
Terms of Use
Terms of Use for Works posted in SOURCE.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Original Publication Citation
Cumming, Sara and Caragata, Lea (2011). Rationing ‘Rights’: Supplementary Welfare Benefits and Lone Moms. Critical Social Work 12(1),66-85. https://doi.org/10.22329/csw.v12i1.5844
SOURCE Citation
Cumming, Sara and Caragata, Lea, "Rationing ‘Rights’: Supplementary Welfare Benefits and Lone Moms" (2011). Publications and Scholarship. 33.
https://source.sheridancollege.ca/fhass_publications/33