[homeles_ot-l] Fwd: CORRECTION - Cuts Hurt Kids Alert

[Terrie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) <isac at lao.on.ca>
Date: Fri, May 30, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Subject: CORRECTION - Cuts Hurt Kids Alert
To: mocharebyl at gmail.com


   Apologies - changes have been made to this text. Attachments are the same
as in the message sent earlier today.

*Cuts hurt Kids Alert!*

Starting in 2008, the Back-to-School and Winter Clothing allowances provided
through OW and ODSP will no longer be paid out in lump sum payments, as the
provincial government starts to move benefits for children out of social
assistance and into the monthly Ontario Child Benefit program.

Families on OW and ODSP will be expected to save up to buy winter clothes
and school supplies, despite the fact they won't receive the new Ontario
Child Benefit until July - just a month before the new school year starts.
But even if they had all year to save, it would be virtually impossible
given how low social assistance rates are. The reality is that, even with
the new Ontario Child Benefit, the majority of families on OW and ODSP will
still be living in poverty.

In response to community outcry, the Ministry of Community and Social
Services' OW Branch has issued an internal bulletin to municipalities and
District Social Services Administration Boards (DSSAB's) giving them the
authority to use discretionary funding to provide families on OW and ODSP
with a special benefit payment to make up for the Back-to-School and Winter
Clothing allowance for this year only.

*Take Action!*

*Provincially:*

Tell your MPP and key ministers that you want the Back-to-School and Winter
Clothing allowance to continue to be separate, mandatory, lump sum benefits
for families on OW and ODSP. Asking municipalities to use discretionary
funds for this year is not  good enough, especially since  some
municipalities or DSSAB's may refuse, leaving families in those areas out of
luck.

Raise this issue in any poverty reduction consultations happening in your
community, in your written submissions to the Cabinet Committee on Poverty
Reduction, or when answering questions on the government's poverty reduction
website: www.growingstronger.ca.

Get your Municipality, DSSAB, School Board or Public Health Board to pass
resolutions calling on the province to restore the allowances. For a sample
resolution, see:
www.incomesecurity.org/documents/BacktoSchoolandWinterClothingAllowances-May2008.doc
.

Also, ask your local District School Board and Student Trustees to support
the Halton District School Board's resolution on this issue, as well as a
separate resolution on increasing OW and ODSP rates, at the Ontario Public
School Board Association's AGM on June 11/12 and the Ontario Student Trustee
Association. Copies of the resolutions and accompany letters are attached
and have already been sent to all public school boards.

*Municipally:*

Contact the manager of your local OW and ODSP offices or local municipal
council and ask them to take action – if the province won't – to ensure
families at least get the Back-to-School and Winter Clothing allowances this
year.




-- 
Terrie ( mocharebyl at gmail.com )
"If you see an injustice being committed, you aren't an observer, you are a
participant." June Callwood
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and
renders the present inaccessible. Maya Angelou
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