Take from the poor, give to the helpless?

When I was confirmed as a buddy, one of the first few clients assigned to me was Rose. Rose, a single mother with 3 children, also had cancer of the cervix and her condition then had deteriorated, she definitely couldn’t work. She was already getting monthly welfare aid then. However, at the time when I was assigned to her, I remember it was already March, but Rose had yet to get the monthly aid since beginning of the year. Her children’s school fees had yet to be paid, neither had their bus fares been paid since the beginning of the year. With Rose in and out of the hospital quite often, her children depended on sympathetic neighbours to provide them food.

That being my first time handling a case dealing with the welfare department, I found it hard to believe that the welfare aid would be 2 or 3 months late.

After asking around, I found out that it was quite a norm for welfare aid recipients to get their money late at the beginning of each year. The excuse was that the welfare aid budget for the year for that particular state had not been received yet.

Anyway, since it has become a normal thing, we always tell our clients to expect delay at the beginning of each year.

It is December now, and so welfare aid recipients should be prepared for delays for the coming few months, right?

Well, apparently, the ones we know (am not sure about those from other states) have not been getting their monthly aid for the past month or 2. The year has not even ended yet! Surely the budget for this year has been received, right?

So off our Buddies Clients’ Welfare coordinator went to check with the district JKM, and was told by an officer there that they had used up the funds to help out the recent flood victims, so recipients of the monthly financial aid should expect further delays until they get new funds.

Oh, so take from the poor and give to the helpless, is it?

Ahh… that way there’s no need to bother the rich!

Smart move…