[homeles_ot-l] Fw: anti-poverty demands

[Reuel S. Amdur]

I sent the following to Milne in Toronto:



To speak of indexing OW & ODSP is seriously mistaken.  In the first place, we have been seeing percentage increases of the two programs since Harris cut OW by 21.6%.  Surely the first order of business is to bring OW up to where it was before the cut.

Secondly, the percentage approach constantly increases the benefits gap between OW and ODSP.  When I first came to Ontario back in 1969, rates for provincial and municipal assistance were almost the same.  The gap was a conscious decision of the Davis gov't shortly thereafter, and it has been growing ever since, to now when ODSP is almost twice OW.  

Stomachs are the same size, OW & ODSP.  

Finally, if we buy the worthy poor (the disabled) vs. the unworthy poor (the rest), which I don't, we need in any case to recognize that the system does a very poor job of identifying the disabled.  Many clients on OW have serious  barriers to employment.  I recently had a client on appeal to ODSP who was turned down, even though the psychologist said that she had serious depression and low intelligence, for which the most appropriate job would be a sheltered workshop.  Her case is all-too-representative.   
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