This assistance is greatly appreciated and is necessary to meet our children's many needs: their specialized therapy, expensive uninsured medications, ambulance fees, and fees related to hospitalization, such as parking and food.
At the same time, however, we as Canadian women are not offered any compensation for the loss of our employment income.
Given our financial situation, we cannot afford to contribute to any retirement savings plan or save for anything. We no longer have any purchasing power. So it is difficult if not impossible for us to purchase a house and a specially equipped vehicle, which we need for our children. We become financially dependant on our spouse, for the 15% of us who still have a spouse, or on society, which puts us back in the 1950s or even back to before women had the right to vote.
In Quebec, the low-income threshold for a single person is $24,000 in 2016-1017. A single mother who is looking after a disabled child receives $9,132 in social assistance in Quebec, which is less than half the low-income threshold, even though it costs $10,000 per year to look after her disabled child.