Making ends meet has always been difficult for Ontarians subsisting on monthly social assistance payments, but things are about to get much worse. The Ford government has covertly been making changes to both the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (O/W).
Compared to the 1.5 per cent cut to a planned social assistance increase Ford made as soon as he took office, his newest Poverty Reduction Strategy has recipients fearful for their future.
Laura Cattari, senior policy analyst at the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (HRPR), is very concerned by the changes Ford introduced with Bill 276, “Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness,” in May 2021. Promoted as a means to modernize social assistance, the bill not only fails to increase social assistance rates, it leaves recipients worried they will no longer qualify for benefits at all.
Under Kathleen Wynne, the Liberals created a roadmap for changing social services. Ford took that document and rebranded it as a conservative creation. The problem is, Ford has not provided the funding needed to implement the changes.
Essentially, the Ford government has taken away the ability for ODSP and O/W recipients to work with one contact and a local financial benefit decision maker. Instead, the Conservatives have decentralized the entire process.
According to Cattari, who was part of the original Income Security Working Group under Wynne, the model created had a recipient dealing with one case worker who was responsible for ensuring all wrap around supports including employment and training. Financial eligibility would be determined locally, but not by the caseworker. In Ford’s model, determination of financial benefits is decentralized to a faceless, provincial processing centre.
Cattari says effective wrap-around supports are not possible under the Ford system because of a lack of funding. She also points to the three pilots for separate employment services as a foreshadowing of what’s going to be rolled out across the province.
Originally, three prototypes were to be piloted for three years in Hamilton-Niagara by New York-based non-profit FedCap; Peel by for-profit APM group; and in Muskoka-Kawartha by Fleming College. However, a year later nine additional regions were added and soon services will no longer be offered through any of the 12 regional Employment Ontario offices.
The provincial government has adjusted legislation so that third parties can be appointed; having the power and authority to operate, delegate and provide services that historically have been under government oversight.
The pilots, underway throughout the pandemic, have been successful getting people off of O/W. However, a total lack of transparency means critics, anti-poverty groups and the general public have no way of knowing if the pilots are meeting their goals, let alone, how they are achieving these goals.
That leads Cattari to ask several questions: “Have those numbers changed from years before? Why are the O/W rolls going down? Is it from employment or being cut off because someone couldn’t meet the employment goals set for them, which is commonly called non-compliance?”
The pilots have since been put out for tender and the Virginia-based firm Maximus has been chosen to oversee the transition to privatization.
According to their website, “Maximus provides cost-effective services that transform the lives of people across Canada and around the world. Our solutions are flexible, scalable and efficient, while never losing sight of the citizens we serve.”
Eventually, all ODSP and O/W recipients will undergo an assessment. Using a standardized tool, people determined to be without employment barriers will be assigned an employment route while those harder to employ due to employment barriers will be placed into a separate secondary category.
The secondary category, generally assumed to be the disabled, is concerning. Despite being told there is a questionnaire, no one has seen it. There is no way to know the determinants used to decide who is employable. More importantly, will that tool override medical recommendations from physicians and specialist? Is there a new appeal process in place around issues of addictions and mental health which can impact employment success? Because of the lack of transparency, there is no way to know what circumstances would lead to a recipient being cut off of social assistance.
The privatization process has begun with O/W recipients. In Hamilton, spouses of ODSP recipients, who are not disabled themselves, are being assessed for employability readiness.
The entire Poverty Reduction Strategy has been carried out with limited feedback from participants. The majority of the consultation process has been carried out through corporate as opposed to being an open consultation process involving those who will be affected.
The provincial government was estimating the social assistance rolls to grow to between 1.4 and 1.5 million individuals by March 2022. Cattari says that number is much closer to 900,000 people due in part to extended federal COVID supplements.
If those extra cases are not materializing, the question then becomes, what’s happening to the money? Ford could save half a billion dollars thanks to fewer clients. Yet, despite these apparent massive cost savings, no new injection of money was made available to increase social assistance payments.
Ford really should have increased deeply inadequate social assistance payments to match Canada Emergency Relief Benefits (CERB). Then, a just transition would have transformed those payments into a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI). That would have ensured everyone on social assistance could access adequate housing and food. It would also ensure that the individual’s dignity would be preserved; the process would be less intrusive; and wrap around services and supports would still be available to enhance overall wellbeing.
Cattari maintains, “We have 25 to 30 years of data that shows you can’t leave people in deep poverty and expect their mental health to improve.”
A single adult trying to survive on ODSP receives $1,169 per month or $14,028 annually—80 per cent of ODSP recipients are single. Over 60 per cent of O/W recipients are single adults trying to stretch $733 per month—$8,796 annually—to cover all expenses. In 2021, $26,426 was the poverty line in Ontario.
Impoverishment rates not only lead to mental health issues, they also compound those that already exist. In Hamilton alone, almost half of homeless people have mental health issues.
Cattari wants the government to remember, “There is no dignity leaving people in fear that feeds anxiety and depression. A GLI and wrap around supports are essential for good mental health.”
Cattari went on to say, “MP Leah Gazan’s recent Bill C-233 is a great framework for exploring GLI. I think it is even an improvement to her earlier motion because it doesn’t assume people will remain on provincial assistance to keep their benefits. It explores the interplay of medical needs and income, indicating a need for both not either or! And my personal favourite, it makes sure we revisit what constitutes a liveable income level in different regions across Canada.”
Defend Disability formed in 2018. The advocacy group is a mix of people with lived experience of disability and poverty, frontline health providers, social policy experts, legal practitioners, health-specific NGOs, community agencies and anti-poverty and disability rights advocates.
Since poverty doesn’t exist in a vacuum, Defend Disability advocates for adequate and affordable housing, health care, social and income supports, accommodating workplaces, and food security. They work to raise people on ODSP out of poverty in a variety of ways rather than through one single policy.
The group wants to ensure ODSP stays accessible to everyone who needs it. They want to stop the proposed changes to the definition of disability used to determine ODSP eligibility. This is an issue of basic human rights.
This is also another case of putting the horse before the cart because the provincial government should really be creating an adequate stable income—or GLI—in conjunction with safe, stable housing, and then appropriate training before sending anyone out into the workforce.
Only when people have physical, emotional, and mental health can they make the best choices for themselves. It’s also important to remember that some people may not be fully able to participate in the workforce but need the socialization to maintain their overall health. This should in no way impact their assistance payments.
Although timelines are hazy, it looks like implementation of Ford’s plans will move ahead in 2024. However, that still requires a realignment between the province, which mandates policy, and the municipalities, contracted by the province to deliver ODSP and O/W payments.
This looks like another downloading of life stabilization to municipal social service agencies who were not consulted during the process. However, the net result may be net neutral for the region if the province is able to remove enough people from the ODSP and O/W rolls. An act that would be tantamount to social murder.
Cattari sagely observes, “When you’re forced into survival mode you can’t think about the future. The beauty of a GLI is that with a future you can dream.”
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