After the election of a neo-liberal provincial government in  , Ontario was at the forefront of work-based welfare reform in Canada. Many of the sweeping reforms carried out under the banner of the "Common Sense Revolution" received widespread coverage: for example, reductions in welfare rates, the introduction of the Ontario Works programme, the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy for so-called welfare fraud, and changes to the rules relating to common-law spousal relationships. However, much less attention has focused upon significant changes to the ways welfare is delivered. This paper critically interrogates a number of key changes to the Service Delivery Model in Ontario. After the passage of federal legislation in  , national entitlements to welfare have been terminated, replaced with local responsibility; this decentralization is changing not only the hierarchy of the regulation of poor people, but also the form and function of provision. In particular, there is evidence of the reinvention of administration towards the microregulation of job search and personal behaviour and the deterrence of welfare receipt as applicants and recipients are bureaucratically disentitled. Although administrative practices have historically acted as a secondary barrier to welfare receipt, the paper suggests that the current incarnation of work-enforcing reforms could be especially significant as the worlds of welfare and work continue to change.

A sample of 146 Bedouin-Arab pupils from polygamous and monogamous families participated in this study, which was conducted in a Bedouin-Arab village in the Negev, Israel. The authors compared learning achievement, social adjustment, and family conflict. Data revealed differences between the two groups: The children from monogamous families had higher levels of learning achievement than did the children from polygamous families; in addition, those from monogamous families adjusted to the school framework better than did those from polygamous families. The mean conflict rating of children from polygamous families was higher than that of their counterparts from monogamous families. The father's level of education tended to be inversely correlated with family size in terms of both number of children and number of wives.

<p>Persons living with episodic disabilities who apply for long-term income assistance in Ontario, Canada are often denied eligibility because of the questionable legitimacy of their shifting medical conditions. Since there are no official categories for persons with episodic disabilities to fit in because they are not entirely well (and employable) nor entirely sick (and unemployable), they are judged as ‘not disabled enough’ within the existing parameters of assistance. Drawing on a series of longitudinal, semi-structured interviews with eight respondents in Toronto, all of whom applied for, but were denied, long-term assistance, we examine the tension between how episodic disabilities are embodied versus the manner in which ‘disability status’ is legislatively constructed. Implications reconsidering the logistics of fixed categories and strategies addressing the wider spectrum of the experience of disability for policy are addressed.</p> <p>Keywords: disability, episodic, Ontario Disability Support Program, ODSP, definitions, embodiment, legitimate</p>

The expansion of the global economy, characterized by shifts in the organization of labor markets, has increased demands for flexible employment. Changes from standard, permanent employment relationships to nonstandard or “precarious” work arrangements have become the normative template in many work settings. Although significant scholarship explores precarious employment among the nondisabled, little work examines precarious work among persons with disabilities, especially women. Drawing on a secondary analysis of a series of longitudinal, semistructured interviews, this article explores the personal and structural barriers to employment that five women with complex episodic disabilities identify as welfare recipients within the context of precarious employment. Implications for practice relationships and policy that consider an alternative understanding of (dis)ability and employability as a contingent, fluid embodiment are considered.

Within closed communities there can be scarcity of resources to deal with severe individual or family difficulties when they arise. In addition, the communities' closed boundaries may create barriers that prevent social services in the broader society from providing needed help. A model that attempts to overcome such barriers was examined in a qualitative study of 21 informal helpers known as askanim in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Canada and Israel. The findings highlight that askanim can play a key role in attempting to resolve problems internally within the community; should this fail, they can then serve as a bridge to the social services in the broader society. In both countries, professionals may approach them if they lack credibility, legitimacy, or information needed to assist families and children within a closed community. This model of collaboration that recognizes the limitations of professionals and the complementary role that resources from the community may have can potentially be applied to work with families and children in other closed communities as well.

This exploratory qualitative study was undertaken to expand our knowledge of cancer patients' perceptions of supportive and unsupportive interactions with members of their social networks and the factors that lead them to evaluate certain kinds of support as helpful and others as unhelpful. Fifteen cancer patients were interviewed using a structured interview schedule. The interview focused on several aspects of the social support process, including types of helpful and unhelpful behaviours, perceived contingencies affecting the expression of supportive and unsupportive behaviours and appraisals of helpful and unhelpful interactions.

In recent decades there has been a rapid expansion of assisted-living facilities for older people in many different countries. Much of this growth has occurred with only limited or no government regulation, but many problems have arisen, typically around the quality of care, which have led to demands that governments act to protect vulnerable residents. This paper examines whether formal legal regulation is the optimal policy to protect the needs and rights of frail residents, while respecting the legitimate interests of others, such as operators and owners. It presents the case for and against direct legal regulation (as in institutions), and suggests that no overall a priori assessment is possible. The analysis is based on the case of Israel, where proposed regulations for assisted-living have been introduced but not implemented. After a brief history of assisted-living in Israel – its recent dramatic growth and why this occurred – the paper concludes that formal direct regulation is not the best route to follow, but that the better course would be to develop totally new ‘combined’ regulatory legislation. This would define the rights of residents and encourage self-regulation alongside minimal and measured mechanisms of deterrence. Such an approach could promote the continued development of the assisted-living industry in Israel and elsewhere, while guaranteeing that the rights, needs and dignity of older residents are protected.

Uni ver sity of To ronto, Can adaAn em ploy ment sur vey among peo ple in To ronto who left On tario Works -a clas sic "work-first" re gime -shows clear sec ond ary la bour mar ket sta tus. Most in ter ven tions typ i cal of work-first programmes did not have a pos i tive ef fect on job qual ity: con trary to the "step ping stones" the ory that poor ini tial jobs lead to better jobs, those who changed jobs af ter leav ing as sis tance ex pe ri enced poorer job qual ity. A shift in ori en ta tion to "sus tain able em ploy ment" is re quired to ad dress the em ploy ment needs of those on so cial as sis tance. Pol icy must also ad dress the fact that the so cial as sis tance case load in cludes a size able group that face sig nif i cant barriers to employment other than education or skills.Ontario Works, the name given to the workbased public assis tance programme in Ontario, was intro duced by a newly elected neoliberal pro vin cial gov ern ment, begin ning in 1997. As a cen tral pillar in the party's elec tion man i festo, the con cept of workfare was imported from earlier wel fare reform ini tia tives in the United States, which had been designed to divert claimants away from sys tems of "pas sive" income sup port in the direc tion of "active" labour market engage ment. This paper builds on the results of a followup survey of former wel fare recip i ents in the City of Toronto to assess the qual ity of employ ment they expe ri enced in the period imme di ately follow ing their leav ing wel fare, and to explore the fac tors that impact on the qual ity of that employment. This is an issue of crit i cal impor tance © In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion, 2005In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 58, 4/2005 Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing 95The au thors are, re spec tively, Prin ci pal In ves ti ga tor, Pro ject Co or di na tor, and Post doc toral Re search Fel low on the So cial As sis tance in the New Econ omy (SANE) pro ject in the Fac ulty of So cial Work, Uni ver sity of To ronto. Ernie Lightman is a pro fes sor of so cial pol icy at the Uni ver sity of To ronto. The au thors wish to thank the To ronto So cial Ser vices De part ment, which un der took the orig i nal sur vey on which this pa per is based. The anal y sis and in ter pre ta tion of find ings pre sented here, as well as the con clu sions and pol icy im pli ca tions drawn, are those of the au thors alone. Fund ing was pro vided by the So cial Sci ences and Hu man i ties Re search Coun cil of Can ada (SSHRC).