In May 2019 ISAC, along with other legal clinics and anti-poverty advocates, discovered that the Ontario government planned to eliminate a benefit that allows some parents on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Program to feed and clothe their children.
The Transition Child Benefit provides up to $230 per child per month to parents on OW or ODSP who are not eligible for the Ontario Child Benefit, to allow them to pay for basic living expenses for their children.
After the Ontario Child Benefit was created, “basic needs” money for children was eliminated from OW and ODSP. Parents on social assistance who don’t get the Ontario Child Benefit rely on the Transition Child Benefit (TCB) to put food on the table for their kids.
Read our backgrounder on this issue here: Transition Child Benefit Elimination – May 2019
Information about the Transition Child Benefit is available on the Ministry’s ODSP website here: https://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/odsp/income_support/odsp_transition.aspx
More information about the Transition Child Benefit is available on Steps to Justice here: https://stepstojustice.ca/questions/income-assistance/what-transition-child-benefit-and-can-i-get-it
When the TCB was first introduced in 2008, we produced this fact sheet: Transition Child Benefit – Fact Sheet – 2008
After wide-spread pushback led by individuals receiving social assistance, community members, and legal clinics, the province reversed its decision and decided not to cut the TCB.