Not eligible for income support?

[cuddles]

Hi everyone.
I have a very important question for you all today.
My fiancé and I just applied for income support and were told quite rudely that we don't qualify.
Apparently we seem like the type who will just "abuse the system" as we were told. I just don't see how this could be. My fiancé has not been able to find a job since February of 09'. We were on EI for nearly a year, during that time my fiancé ` got several tickets (at his own expense) to help him find stable job. These tickets include but are not limited to, basic first aid, WHIMS, H2S, confined spaces..etc. Even with tickets, he hasn't been able to find a job. He did manage to land one a month ago, but that only lasted for 2 weeks as their was just not enough work and the crew had to be fired. In the past 3 weeks he has handed out WELL over 20 resumes all across Alberta for jobs ranging from oilfield work, to janitorial and shelf stocker. We have NO assets that we can liquidate and no spare money in the bank to fall back on. We have a 1 year lease on a rent-to-own home that cost's us $950.00 per month. As you can tell by our rent, we are hardly living above our means ( a bachelor suite costs around this price). I just had a baby a few months ago, so naturally I haven't been able to work. I'm in good condition now and actively looking for a job. BOTH of us have been looking and nobody is hiring, yet we're ineligible for income support because the intake worker seems to think we'll just sit on welfare and abuse the system. I really don't see how we have given her that impression. When I had researched income support (as a LAST resort) I came to the conclusion that we were exactly what the program was created for; families actively seeking careers who need temporary financial assistance.


I don't know what we have done to deserve this. We have exhausted EVERY effort to find work, including putting up fliers for odd jobs around town. Now rent is due, our bills have come in.....


I have contacted the intake workers supervisor and will talk to him about appealing our case, if he refuses I will contact the Ombudsman of Alberta. I would like to rectify this situation without causing a huge commotion. I'm a reasonable person and I'm more then willing to compromise.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Any advice to offer?

 

[lone wolf]

Keep at them. They like to make people jump through hoops. There are a lot of people out there who are just out to sit on the system and it's those ones who make the system mean on everyone. I don't know how they work in Alberta, but in Ontario the Ombudsman is a waste of time. They just rubber stamp the original decision in my experience. Appeal. Go to your MPP, the Red Cross ... any place that makes waves. If you're entitled, they can't deny.

 

[Risus]

20 resumes aren't many to hand out in 3 weeks. During that length of time, he should have been able to put out well over 150.

Question: Do either of you have any RRSPs?

 

[cuddles]

We don't have any RRSP's.
I understand it may not seem like many resumes, but we do live in a rural area and like I said previously, he has been handing resumes out for quite a while. Most of the businesses around here have received his resume multiple times, usually once a month. That being said, because we do live in a rural area, we have arranged temporary room and board for him near a larger center. Though we send resumes off to whoever is hiring (we've been looking for employers via job bank and wowjobs), my fiancé is either over or under qualified for most of the jobs available. Nobody's biting and I can't for the life of me understand why. My fiancé is a clean, well kept person with great charisma and work history, yet nobody seems to want to give him a try. We keep sending them off though, in hopes that someone (anyone, even McDonalds) will hire. We'll take any job we can get, but in the mean time we really need a hand. Our government has turned their back to us and we just don't understand why. We're both law abiding citizens without so much as a traffic ticket. We don't drink, smoke or do drugs and are good Samaritans, yet when the chips are down who does the government help? Not the young family struggling to keep their unit together, but the booze addicted low life who can but WON'T get a job. I'm infuriated.

 

[Risus]

lone wolf has a point. Around here if you want to apply for disability , for example, you automatically seem to be turned down a few times before you actually get it. The same thing might be happening in your area.
One thing that is important is to keep a record of all the job hunting you guys are doing. These guys like to see paperwork and records.