Money doesn’t empower me

Money doesn’t empower me. Money brings me more problems than power. It’s crudely worded, but that’s just the way it is. I’ve always been poor and unemployed for too long. Social Security pays my rent plus utilities and health insurance. After several deductions, my subsistence is reduced to CHF 500 a month, and this is what I have left for food, clothes, linen, public transport and everything else. That support is clearly not buying power, it’s just “Go on, this is all you can get!”

Now it just doesn’t work anymore

It was difficult yesterday, very difficult. Now, with prices soaring, that’s no longer possible. The cost of living has gone up and continues to go up, but my support hasn’t. So I have to fend for myself, sometimes even cheat. Sometimes I borrow CHF 20 here or CHF 50 there. Never more than CHF 50, otherwise the cat will bite its tail. My family, friends or neighbors help me.

It is a point of honor for me to pay back the borrowed money as soon as possible even if I have to bail it out of my mouth.

Whenever possible, I take advantage of special offers, but often I can’t afford them because I would have to buy large quantities. I make my own laundry detergent with Marseille soap. I have no right to the Caritas market. Sometimes you can eat in the social kitchen for CHF 5.-.

But even with the subsidy, the support of associations active in the social field and the social assistance of CHF 500.-, it is no longer possible. So…?

So I do a few hours of moonlight work. If I reported this meager income, they would immediately take it away from me.

In my situation I’m almost forced to lie, even though I’d much rather find another solution. I really want to work and no longer depend on welfare. Undeclared work, this little job, gives me courage and strength, it gives me hope and the desire to find a real job.

But no one wants me and my resume, it’s so simple and sad and so outrageous.

What it takes…

What would be needed to fight this poverty would be a sort of unconditional income. And the state could use some of the welfare money to fund the training of long-term unemployed people and create jobs where their skills would be useful.

I have to invent something new every day and find solutions to keep going day after day. In the face of this crisis, however, social assistance must also reinvent itself. And urgently!

Statements by an ATD Fourth World activist recorded by Perry ProellochATD Fourth World Editor

translation of Queen Reuschle