![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Started as an observation...
Originally my comments were fueled by the apparent ingratitude of some people at the ODSP office today. But I realize, there is a ort of social assistance culture of "never enough:"
So today I picked up my new bus pass. The Community Pass. It allows people with disabilties to ride in a very cost-efficient manner. I can certainly support the initiative, trying to get otherwise potentially housebound people out and into the community. Not to mention for people with fixed and low incomes, this makes life more manageable. I had to pay for the new ID, but frankly, the $35 I paid for the ID and the monthly EXPRESS pass was a steal. It made me giddy. Yes, I have had a little extra cash lately, but my contracted just ended and I'm not going to turn down a little extra assistance. As long as the government assesses me to be below the poverty line, I will keep accepting assistance.
But then the buzzkill hit. I had to go to the ODSP office to drop off my forms (you have to do it in person or they get lost. Ask anyone in the system. It's true!). So a woman beside starts a conversation about the new bus pass. She is upset because the office still won't cover the full cost of the bus pass. WHAT? The city puts forth an initiative which makes your bus pass over $40 cheaper, and you're UPSET because someone else isn't picking up the tab?? I has happy I got to save $40 a month. I highly doubt the purpose of the disability program was to cover *everything*.
When I am not working I have more than enough to pay for food, shelter, internet, TV and basic living. I could make life changes and flip some of that stuff around, or trade cable for a cell phone (you get the idea). I use the STEP program to upgrade that living so that I can go out and stuff. I consider my standard of living to be fully adequate.
So back to the people in the office. "They don't give me enough to eat" "They don't pay for my satellite dish" "They cut off my cellphone" "they reduced my food allowance under the new system""They don't give me enough for rent". Seriously. The government sets up a program so you won't DIE and you are upset because you can't figure out how to manage on $1000/month (give or take).
$12,000/year isn't fun to live on, but it's definitely possible to do it.
So today I picked up my new bus pass. The Community Pass. It allows people with disabilties to ride in a very cost-efficient manner. I can certainly support the initiative, trying to get otherwise potentially housebound people out and into the community. Not to mention for people with fixed and low incomes, this makes life more manageable. I had to pay for the new ID, but frankly, the $35 I paid for the ID and the monthly EXPRESS pass was a steal. It made me giddy. Yes, I have had a little extra cash lately, but my contracted just ended and I'm not going to turn down a little extra assistance. As long as the government assesses me to be below the poverty line, I will keep accepting assistance.
But then the buzzkill hit. I had to go to the ODSP office to drop off my forms (you have to do it in person or they get lost. Ask anyone in the system. It's true!). So a woman beside starts a conversation about the new bus pass. She is upset because the office still won't cover the full cost of the bus pass. WHAT? The city puts forth an initiative which makes your bus pass over $40 cheaper, and you're UPSET because someone else isn't picking up the tab?? I has happy I got to save $40 a month. I highly doubt the purpose of the disability program was to cover *everything*.
When I am not working I have more than enough to pay for food, shelter, internet, TV and basic living. I could make life changes and flip some of that stuff around, or trade cable for a cell phone (you get the idea). I use the STEP program to upgrade that living so that I can go out and stuff. I consider my standard of living to be fully adequate.
So back to the people in the office. "They don't give me enough to eat" "They don't pay for my satellite dish" "They cut off my cellphone" "they reduced my food allowance under the new system""They don't give me enough for rent". Seriously. The government sets up a program so you won't DIE and you are upset because you can't figure out how to manage on $1000/month (give or take).
$12,000/year isn't fun to live on, but it's definitely possible to do it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
See, for me, I have allowed society's belief that my 'condition' is a result of moral and behavioral laxity to seep into my own consciousness, and thus I don't ask for things because I don't think I deserve them, because I honestly believe if I was a better, stronger and more resolute person I wouldn't be on ODSP in the first place. It doesn't help I suppose that periodically a particularly bitchy former roomate pops her head up and announces to the world in general that "He's on disability because he's lazy..." or that my favorite talk radio venue still sees obesity as a matter of how many potato chips I scharf down in a day or the late night health shows say "All you have to do is wanna..."
So I don't ask for more, WON'T ask for more. And I can usually do okay more or less....until December rolls around, or I need a new pair of pants. ODSP doesn't see clothing as a neccessity. Maybe one day when I lose both pairs of pants to entropy I'll go down to their offices in my underwear and see how neccessary they think it is....but I digress.
I do know that in the past it hasn't been enough, especially when travel is limited to you and you can't get around to find deals. Bringing groceries home on the bus is usually not a good idea anyways...
Now mind you, if I eliminated gaming from my budget utterly, I could save on average about 200 - 300 bucks a year or so (depending on publishing schedules), but honestly, I'm not gonna. So I deserve to suffer I guess. I am not really complaining...not that much, not that loudly.
From:
no subject
I've always had to bring groceries home on the bus (or walk the ten minutes with them from the store). I'd love not to, but I haven't mastered the telekinetic powers to levitate them home yet.