I notice the TV as well.
I hope that they save their money by not having cable and cellular phone as well because those costs may offset the power assistant needs.
Funny that my family came to Canada (we lost everything in the war, and owed the Canadian government $10,000 CAD because they sponsored us) and the government was willing to give us $1200 a month for welfare, but my dad refused to take it and went to work for $900 (he was ripped off by the contractor because it was way under the minimum wage) a month after we were in the country for 30 days (I went to work a couple of month later at 14 year old, 40 hours a week not including 2 paper routes, and still have school on top of it). Welfare came to us and asked my dad to fill out an assistant form so that we get $300/month supplement so that we can eat, but he declined upon principle that my family are not parasites of society. My siblings & my daily ration were 2 pieces of white bread for breakfast & 2 pieces for lunch, a teaspoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of butter. Super were 3 small bowl of white rice and a bit of vegetable + 2~3 ounces of caramelized salty chicken. After 3 years of living like beggars we purchased our first house and paid it off in 3.5 years (mortgage interest rate were 18.5%). And, a year later my dad and I purchased our second house and gave it to my eldest sister for her wedding a year later. 1.5 year after that my dad died of cancer and I had to carry on helping out my younger sisters (put 2 sister through university, and my mom went to work for the first time in her life...total of 4 years), and my mom and I purchased 33 acre ++ built a nice 2600 sqf weekend house just outside of town.
Sorry, to sound like I'm bragging, but the gist of the story is that anyone can make it if they put their sweat and tears into it, because immigrants that came to Canada/US from all parts of the world did it and still are doing it.
I have sympathy for poor/handicapped people that needs help that I regularly donates my time and money, but I absolutely detest those that are capable but are too lazy to work. It might do some good if the government use the welfare money to send them to some poor country in Africa to live/volunteer for a year so that they sees how the other half live.