[homeles_ot-l] fyi

[Reuel Amdur]

December 6, 2016


Welfare in Ontario


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Reuel S. Amdur


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Ontario has a two-tiered social assistance system. When I came to Canada and
Ontario in 1969 they were called Family Benefits and General Assistance.
Mike Harris changed them to Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and
Ontario Works (OW).

The amounts for a single person in 1969 were almost the same under each
program.  Under Premier William Davis, a decision was made to increase
Family Benefits but not General Assistance. 

Since then, the practice was to make increases by percentages, thus
increasing the dollar gap between the two programs.  More recently, under
the brief stint of Ted McMeekin as Minister of Community and Social
Services, the percentage increase was accompanied by a top-up for singles on
Ontario Works.

The province has never, during all these years, attempted to relate social
assistance rates to what it costs to live.  That is true of Conservative,
Liberal, and NDP governments.  Apparently, at some time before my arrival in
Canada, rates were related to the moderate but adequate budget calculated by
the Social Planning Council of Toronto, but changes in rates did not
maintain that rationale.  The lack of any effort to relate rates to need is
simply astounding.

To get to the higher level of assistance, a person must be found to be
disabled. 

The determination can only be described as seriously flawed.  It used to be
that single parent families were eligible for the higher rate, as indicated
in the title: Family Benefits.  However, the decision was made to put single
parent families down to the lower level of support.  This move,
counterintuitive on its face in terms of social policy, has to some extent
been mitigated by child benefits measures.

In addition to rates, a variety of rule changes affect the lives of those on
social assistance. 

For example, the NDP government instituted a regulation which limited the
value of an automobile possessed by people on General Assistance to $5000.
The regulation included a complicated procedure for determining what to do
if someone came onto assistance with a car worth more.  Experience with the
regulation showed that welfare workers frequently erred in the application
of the regulation. 

The NDP government instituted this regulation in response in the House to an
attack by Conservatives in the question period about someone on General
Assistance who had an expensive vehicle.  The regulation did not affect
those on disability benefits.  The worthy poor versus the unworthy poor, it
seems.

When Mike Harris came in, many changes were made.  First, rates for Ontario
Works were cut 21.6%.  Then a number of other regressive measures were
instituted. 

Recipients on social assistance were required to pay $2 per prescription for
medicines that were previously free.  A complicated measure was adopted to
differentiate between two classes of applicants/recipients of Ontario Works
living with family-dependent and independent adults, the purpose being to
lessen or eliminate eligibility for the former.  Previously, as well, those
over 60 were immediately eligible for the higher level of assistance.  Under
Harris, that was eliminated.

One could go on to identify other regressive changes put in place by NDP and
Conservative governments, but the fact is that the Liberals have not acted
to change or reverse these measures. 

Most notably, there has been no serious change in Ontario Works to reverse
the 21.6% cut.  Other regressive changes by Bob Rae's NDP government and
that of Mike Harris remain in effect.  The complicated and hardly capable of
application of the policy on Ontario Works car value has been updated as to
the value of a car permitted, but the policy itself remains.  It still costs
a recipient two dollars for each prescription. 

At age 60, a recipient still remains on Ontario Works.  The complex,
convoluted regulation on dependent and independent adults remains on the
books.

While the Liberals under Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne have made some
increases in rates, they have not seriously addressed the 21.6% Harris cut
in Ontario Works rates.  They have done nothing at all about the drug
charges, car valuation regulation, eligibility criteria for singles living
with family, and lack of eligibility for ODSP at age 60.  As far as those
who receive social assistance are concerned, Mike Harris is still in power.

 

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