It can be very stressful for Christiane to pay all her bills.

Transcript

When you receive the bills, by the time you get an answer for the cost exemption, you receive bills! The first bill was from January 10 to 30, 31. The month of February was $1711.13. I almost had $4000 in expenses. Eventually you say, “How will I make ends meet with this?” Up to a point that when I got the answer, I looked at the letter; I said, “I don’t believe this.” I called. The man who answered the phone told me “Give me your name and the person who did the calculation will call you back.” Within 10 minutes, the man called me back. Then he tells me “Yes, yes, that’s it.” He said, “The amount is correct—$347.58.” I burst into tears. But it’s good news. I said, “It is very good news, but I have been stressed for the past month and a half because I didn’t know what was going to happen.” I said, “We have no idea how much money they will take.” I said, “They even suggested that I may have to go on welfare.” At 62 years old, I would not accept to be on welfare. It’s quite a drop. He explained the calculation to me. I said, “It’s the same for everybody”, and he said, “Yes”. It’s so stupid. They take both revenues, take off $1200 for the couple, then after that they take 25%, but if they had told me that in the beginning, I would have had an idea. I wouldn’t have been so stressed, because I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to pay my rent. My children were thinking of contributing to give me the balance of the money to pay my rent. It’s not a joke. My children are not responsible for this; it’s not even their father. I find that we are not supported, really not. We are left in the cold. If you manage, good. If not, well…

---

Go back