Deck 15: Poverty and the Family

Question 1

According to the text,which of the following BEST describes those who move out of poverty?

A) They are likely to go from a two-adult household to a one-adult household.
B) They are likely to be women who have upgraded their skills.
C) They are likely to go from a one-adult to a two-adult, two-earner household.
D) They are likely to be women who are in a workfare program.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Before 1920,why were pensions primarily set up?

A) to help the elderly whose children would not support them
B) to help abandoned or ill mothers with young children
C) to help people who were unable to hold onto jobs
D) to help injured workers

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What does "depth of poverty" refer to?

A) the amount that family or individual income is below the poverty line
B) the length of time family income has remained below the poverty line
C) the number of families in an area with incomes below the poverty line
D) the number of families in the country with incomes below the poverty line

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Stephanie is part of the group of adults in Canada with the largest percentage living below the poverty line.Which of the following describes her status?

A) a married mother under the age of 25
B) a single adult under the age of 25
C) a lone mother
D) an elderly widow

Question 5

In the early days of the "mothers' allowances," what happened once women received this social assistance?

A) They had to meet once a month with their social worker.
B) They could move out of town only if they kept the welfare department informed.
C) They were subject to intrusion in their personal lives.
D) They received the payments without further review until children were grown.

Question 6

Prior to the development of the social safety net,which of the following ideas was NOT generally held?

A) Poor people should be able to retain some dignity.
B) Poverty was the result of bad budgeting and bad habits.
C) Asking for help should be so unpleasant that a person had to be desperate.
D) Help should be less than the most poorly paid worker earned.

Question 7

What are the basic social security programs needed to support family life called in Canada?

A) social support
B) welfare
C) temporary assistance for needy families (TANF)
D) the social safety net

Question 8

Why is duration of poverty important?

A) The farther below the poverty line, the harder it is to provide basic needs.
B) The longer poverty lasts, the harder it is to make ends meet.
C) Individuals usually do not have any resources to tide them over.
D) Individuals are likely to experience food insecurity.

Question 9

According to the text,in general,what is poverty defined almost entirely in terms of?

A) well-being
B) ability to manage
C) income
D) possessions

Question 10

What is a method of screening applicants to ensure that only those who need financial assistance receive it?

A) social security screening
B) a clawback
C) a financial review
D) a means test

Question 11

Which of the following does the Statistics Canada low income cut-off take into account?

A) province
B) family size
C) age of family members
D) sex of family members

Question 12

Which of the following families is LEAST likely to be living in poverty?

A) a lone-mother family with one child
B) a married couple with both employed
C) a married couple with one earner and two children
D) an elderly widow

Question 13

Why has there been a decrease in poverty among the elderly?

A) because of the availability of the clawback and workfare policies
B) because of an increase in the number of seniors who hold jobs
C) because of the number of the near-poor in Canadian cities
D) because of improved pensions and government benefits

Question 14

When were most of the social security programs now available in Canada established?

A) before World War I
B) since 1980
C) during the Great Depression
D) after World War II

Question 15

Which of the following factors does NOT help explain why recent immigrants have a greater risk of poverty?

A) They often have large families to look after and are unable to work long hours.
B) Some come from countries with language and customs very different from Canada.
C) Entry-level jobs, which many must take, are low paying.
D) The swing toward self-employment is difficult for newcomers without connections.

Question 16

There are two basic ways of defining poverty.What are they based on?

A) either cost of housing or cost of a balanced diet
B) either worthy poor or universal minimum
C) either safety net or means test
D) either physical survival or social well-being

Question 17

Where are rates of poverty for Aboriginal people highest?

A) Manitoba and Saskatchewan
B) Alberta and Quebec
C) Ontario and Nova Scotia
D) British Columbia and Newfoundland

Question 18

What do most measures of poverty used in Canada consider?

A) social well-being
B) physical survival
C) resources available
D) location of the community

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a reason that it is hard to determine the number of poor people in Canada?

A) Homeless people are almost impossible to count.
B) Rates vary with fluctuations in the economy.
C) No one has tried to count them.
D) The total depends on the definition used.

Question 20

According to the text,which is NOT a factor influencing the impact of poverty on families?

A) breadth
B) duration
C) depth
D) pace

Question 21

How does living in shelters affect children?

A) The effects are positive because the children have a roof over their heads.
B) The effects are more extreme than in other forms of poverty.
C) The effects encourage better health and education because the children are supervised.
D) The effects foster a sense of family closeness because that is all the children have.

Question 22

According to the text,what is one of the most striking facts about poverty in Canada?

A) Most poor people live outside large cities.
B) Most poor people have at least a high school education.
C) Many people who live in poverty have jobs.
D) People living in poverty tend to have one child.

Question 23

What happens to children from families living in poverty?

A) They pay recreational centre fees to escape from their homes.
B) They participate less often in organized sports than children from wealthier homes.
C) They are more likely to play unorganized sports than other children.
D) They are less likely to watch television than other children.

Question 24

Following a fire that destroyed their apartment and all their possessions,John and his family are homeless.How can they be described?

A) chronically homeless
B) cyclically homeless
C) temporarily homeless
D) discreditably homeless

Question 25

According to the text,what is twice as likely for poor children?

A) to live in the same neighbourhood for many years
B) to live in poorly functioning families
C) to find a mentor who provides a good role model
D) to have parents who combine firmness and consideration

Question 26

What is the term for the uncertainty that a person can buy enough nutritious food he or she likes,or the inability to do so?

A) food insecurity
B) malnutrition
C) starvation
D) an empty cupboard

Question 27

According to the text,which of the following BEST describes the homeless?

A) They are almost all psychiatric patients who have been discharged to the community.
B) They consist of transient unemployed men, much like those in the 1930s.
C) They rarely include families, women, or children.
D) They are a varied group with different reasons for homelessness.

Question 28

Which of the following is LEAST likely to be given as a reason for the increase in homelessness?

A) changes in eligibility for welfare
B) drug and alcohol abuse
C) sharp increases in costs of food and other essentials
D) shortages in affordable housing

Question 29

Which of the following makes up the largest single group of poor people in Canada?

A) lone mothers
B) children
C) elderly women
D) runaway teens

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT a cause for the increase in market poverty?

A) Minimum wages have not kept pace with inflation.
B) There are fewer people interested in filling available jobs.
C) Unemployment has been high and jobs have taken longer to find.
D) A growing number of workers aged 55 to 64 have been laid off.

Question 31

According to an American study of single mothers surviving on welfare,what was their first choice for extra funds to meet their expenses?

A) working, but not reporting the pay
B) asking relatives for help
C) selling sex, drugs, or stolen goods
D) getting money from the child's father

Question 32

There are no exact figures for the number of homeless people in Canada.Which of the following reasons is LEAST likely to account for the lack of information?

A) The homeless population changes from day to day.
B) It is difficult to count people who do not use a shelter.
C) Definitions of homelessness change.
D) Cyclically homeless individuals complete the Canadian Census when they are living at home.

Question 33

Lucy finds that at the end of the month she sometimes does not have enough money for food for herself and her children.What strategy is she LEAST likely to use?

A) ask friends and relatives for help
B) feed herself first and give the children what is left
C) use a food bank or soup kitchen
D) miss meals so that she can feed her children

Question 34

Eli is addicted to meth amphetamine and marijuana and has been using drugs for many years.What is he is most likely to be?

A) cyclically homeless
B) chronically homeless
C) temporarily homeless
D) absolutely homeless

Question 35

What is poverty based on wages alone?

A) minimum pay
B) working poverty
C) wage insecurity
D) market poverty

Question 36

What does the current trend regarding the number of families needing emergency shelter appear to be?

A) The number of families needing emergency shelter appears to be increasing
B) The number of families needing emergency shelter appears to be staying about the same
C) The number of families needing emergency shelter appears to be decreasing
D) The number of immigrant families needing emergency shelter appears to be increasing.

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT true of social assistance?

A) Most people on welfare do not want to work.
B) Welfare rates are well below the low income cut-off.
C) Welfare is a last resort when a person is ineligible for employment insurance.
D) Add-ons such as drug and dental care can make welfare preferable to low wages.

Question 38

How many Canadians were challenged by finding affordable housing between 2002 and 2004?

A) over one-sixth
B) over one-quarter
C) over one-third
D) over one-half

Question 39

According to the text,which of the following BEST describes conditions in shelters for the homeless?

A) They are usually worse in women's shelters than in men's.
B) They offer the homeless a sense of being cared for.
C) They do not favour family living because of lack of privacy.
D) They are made worse for psychiatric patients by the numbers of children admitted.

Question 40

Which of the following is NOT a reason that poor children tend to have less education than children in better-off families?

A) They leave school prior to high school to help provide financially for their families.
B) They are ill more often and miss more school.
C) They may not have suitable space to do homework.
D) Other children may stigmatize them for their poverty.

Question 41

____________________ is the policy of requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to train for a job or to be employed.

Question 42

According to one American study,welfare recipients use various strategies to make ends meet when benefits are insufficient.List four of these strategies.

Question 43

Explain what is meant by the social safety net and give two examples of programs included within it.

Question 44

One of the most striking facts about poverty in Canada is that many people who live in poverty have ____________________.

Question 45

Which of the following is NOT a suggestion made for reducing poverty?

A) Increase social assistance.
B) Increase workfare.
C) Improve food banks.
D) Create jobs.

Question 46

____________________ is the uncertainty that people can buy enough nutritious food,or the actual inability to do so.

Question 47

|Three factors influence the impact of poverty on families: they are __________ __________ __________.(Note: When entering your response,separate your answers with a comma.Example: answer1,answer2)

Question 48

One common definition for poverty is the Statistics Canada ____________________.

Question 49

According to the text,what is one of the problems with job-creation efforts?

A) People would much rather live on welfare.
B) No retraining is offered to welfare recipients.
C) The training courses offered take too long to complete.
D) Many of the jobs pay low wages.

Question 50

According to the text,what is workfare?

A) the practice of not reporting income earned from a job to welfare authorities
B) the practice of using a false social insurance number to work when on welfare
C) the policy of requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to train for a job or to work
D) the policy of screening applicants to make sure they are healthy enough to work

Question 51

Depth,breadth,and duration influence the impact of poverty on families.Explain why each of these factors are important.

Question 52

What is meant by the "working poor"? Give two reasons for poverty in this group.

Question 53

What factors are used to establish the Statistics Canada low-income cut-off points?

Question 54

The ____________________ refers to the basic social programs needed to support family life.

Question 55

Those who are ____________________ homeless may have lost a job,have suffered family violence,or have been released from prison.They are often repeaters.

Question 56

A method of screening applicants to ensure that only those who need financial assistance receive it is the _________________.

Question 57

Many members of the deaf community have problems finding jobs because they are ________________.

Question 58

How has the focus of social assistance programs changed?

A) It has switched from providing services targeted at specific groups to universal coverage.
B) It has switched from providing subsidies to working parents to increasing welfare benefits.
C) It has switched from providing services to all poor people to those aimed at reducing child poverty.
D) It has switched from providing noncash services such as school nutrition to funding for food banks.

Question 59

It has generally been felt that ____________________ should be at a lower level than the money earned by the most poorly paid labourer.

Question 60

What happened,on average,to people leaving welfare during the 1990s?

A) They got married.
B) They became even poorer.
C) They went back on welfare permanently.
D) They increased their income.

Question 61

The ability of poor families to survive financially and actual homelessness are both closely tied to the cost of housing.Show why this is true.

Question 62

Describe three causes of homelessness and give a suggested solution for each.

Question 63

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of three basic approaches to reducing poverty.

Question 64

Discuss the effects of poverty on children.

Question 65

Give three reasons homeless women are less noticeable than homeless men.

Question 66

List the three groups among the homeless and give an example of a life circumstance that would lead to each.