How Systems Conflict and the Experience of Low Income Amplifies


Amber Gazso, University of the Fraser Valley; Tracy Smith-Carrier, Royal Roads University; Carrie Smith, Kings University College, Western University

In the broader scholarship on poverty in Canada, it is well understood that people living in low income and accessing social assistance experience various barriers to ending their benefit receipt, unemployment being one of them. However, little research explores whether and how access to other social services and resources complements receipt of social assistance and potentially improves exit outcomes and recipients’ trajectories. In this paper, we endeavour to address this lacuna. We draw on findings from our qualitative research project that explored individuals’ experiences of being on social assistance (Ontario Works) and following its rules and expectations while simultaneously navigating relationships with the criminal justice system, the addictions and mental health care system, and the child welfare system. Questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and ecomaps comprise the data both Ontario Works benefit recipients (n=88) and caseworkers (n=13) shared with us in this multi-site project with the cities of Toronto, Hamilton, and London. Our objective in this analysis is precise. We work to unravel the means and patterns of: collision among social assistance use and relationships with other systems; individuals’ agency when caught in a systems conflict; instrumental and expressive support and labour in managing systems and the conflicts between them. We conclude by theorizing pathways out of poverty as thwarted by interwoven systems and the policy implications of our findings.  

This paper will be presented at the following session: