Policy Advocacy

TORONTO (Oct 24, 2012) – The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) is urging the provincial government to respond to the report of the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario by immediately engaging with people on social assistance. “It is time to move social assistance away from punishment and surveillance and toward dignity and support,” said Mary Marrone, …

The ODSP Action Coalition has created a lobby kit for advocates to use in meetings with their MPPs on the Social Assistance Review. The Coalition is a provincial group advocating for people with disabilities on ODSP and considers the Social Assistance Review the most important opportunity in decades to improve ODSP so that people with disabilities can live with dignity. Unfortunately, the Coalition is increasingly worried that any restructuring that comes out of the review will be more about reducing the costs of ODSP than improving the lives of people with disabilities.

We must state at the outset that this kind of understanding of the needs and reality of life for people with disabilities did not come through in “Approaches for Reform”.

Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change (COP-COC) is a province wide campaign made up of individuals and organizations working to build community-based capacity to address the growing racialization of poverty and the resulting increased levels of social exclusion and marginalization of racialized communities – both First Peoples and peoples of colour – in Ontario. COP-COC sees …

This submission examines why the current Ontario Works (OW) program cannot reach objectives consistent with poverty reduction under its current policy framework. It will also look at the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). While ODSP shares many of the same problems as OW with respect to financial eligibility, unlike OW it has promising legislative objectives that have been given effect in judicial decisions at the highest level. While these objectives have not been fully realized, the program nonetheless has some important features that should not be discarded but instead built upon.

We determined that it would be helpful to outline the Coalition’s ideas for ODSP reform within a framework that we call an “Activation Agenda”. This model of employment-related supports is made up of four key elements that we believe are the foundation for an Ontario Disability Support Program that would actually meet the objectives it was set out to achieve.

ISAC, together with many community and social policy partners, have been calling for an overhaul of social assistance since the government announced its commitment to developing a poverty reduction strategy. We did this because Ontario Works (OW), as a “work first” program, is not meeting its stated objectives: it has failed as a program to provide income supports effectively, and it has failed as a program to promote labour market attachment. Ontario Works in particular undermines the values and policy framework of Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Act, and Poverty Reduction Strategy. While the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) certainly needs improvement, it is OW that needs transformation.

In preparation for and throughout the term of the Social Assistance Review, we wanted to share a number of important reports and studies produced by others. We were hoping that these materials would be helpful for people who were thinking about what the problems are in Ontario’s social assistance and income security systems, and what …

If we were redesigning an income support program for persons with disabilities we would start from these principles:
– Persons with disabilities have the right to be treated with dignity;
– Income support levels should adequately support the needs of people with disabilities;
– The capacities of persons with disabilities to participate and contribute to economic and civic life should be recognized and nurtured; and,
– Provincial income support programs should be aligned with other programs and policies of government (provincial and federal), to the greatest extent possible and without disadvantaging the people they are intended to serve.

Women – and especially women from racialized groups – experience poverty differently from other people, and have particular concerns that should be addressed in the course of the Social Assistance Review. In November 2011, a group of women wrote to Minister Meilleur and Minister Broten encouraging them to ensure that Ontario’s review of social assistance …

The 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction welcomes the news that Ontario’s long awaited Social Assistance review will start in January and be led by two very able commissioners: Frances Lankin and Dr. Munir Sheikh.

“We’re very pleased with the broad terms of reference for this review. It will provide recommendations not only on how to transform social assistance but on how it should connect to other income security programs that many of us need to rely on at some point in our lives, such as disability support programs and Employment Insurance,” said Jacquie Maund, Coordinator of Ontario Campaign 2000.

Everyone agrees that Ontario’s welfare system is a mess. In a report released Monday, a panel of experts cites “deep and continuing dissatisfaction” with the status quo in all quarters — government, business, labour, community groups, and welfare recipients. What is lacking is a consensus on how to fix it, which is why the provincial government is planning a major policy review of welfare.

REPORT OF THE ONTARIO SOCIAL ASSISTANCE REVIEW ADVISORY COUNCIL

May 2010

There is deep and continuing dissatisfaction with the existing approach to social assistance from all quarters: community groups, business, labour, policy makers, the people who run the system and those who receive its benefits.

Ontario’s core social assistance programs – Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program – together with the other programs that make up Ontario’s income security system, continue to fall short in providing an economic safety net for individuals and families as well as promoting opportunity to ensure everyone can contribute to the long-term prosperity of the province.

Ontario’s Social Assistance Review report, released Monday morning, called for Ontario to create a plan to ensure income security for the province, saying such a plan would help the economic recovery.

Over the years, different political parties who hold power in Ontario have said welfare reform was needed, and after hearings and reviews, changes would be implemented. The most devastating changes were made under Mike Harris’s leadership, which saw Ontario’s Social Assistance programs essentially gutted.

Ontario will take a deeper look at a major revamping of its welfare system after a report called for broad changes to help the disadvantaged into jobs, Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur said Monday.

The review will take 12 to 18 months, she said, with the NDP noting that means the issues of helping the poor are effectively on hold until after the October 2011 election.

A government-appointed panel says the Ontario welfare system is not working, and is calling for it to be completely overhauled.

The Social Assistance Review Advisory Committee released its report Monday morning at Queen’s Park.

It says the emphasis of welfare should be shifted from providing financial assistance to helping people break out of poverty.

Ontario should adopt a bold vision for welfare reform that includes new income supports and services for all low-income residents, says a government-appointed panel in a report being released Monday.

TORONTO, June 14 /CNW/ – The province urgently requires a more effective system of income security programs that meet the needs of Ontarians in a rapidly shifting economy, says a new report by the Social Assistance Review Advisory Council (SARAC).

The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council (SARAC) has issued a report to the Minister of Community and Social Services about changes to Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rules that could make life better for people relying on social assistance in Ontario. ISAC’s Director of Advocacy and Legal Services, Mary Marrone, is …

Whether he meant to or not, the auditor general’s December 7th analysis of OW/ODSP let a dysfunctional social assistance system off the hook, instead laying blame with the people who have nowhere else to turn to for basic support.

The ensuing debate risks losing sight of the simple fact that when it comes to social assistance, it’s not the people who are the problem.

Laurie Monsebraaten The Toronto Star Ontario has appointed the head of Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank to head a panel of anti-poverty advocates to advise the government on a long-awaited review of its welfare system, the Star has learned. “If this group can’t make the proper recommendations, then nobody can,” said food bank executive director …

Bronwen Sims calls it Ontario’s “work disincentive program.” The 35-year-old woman, who suffers from bipolar disorder and fibromyalgia, has been living in poverty on Ontario’s disability support program for the past 10 years while doctors help her battle alcoholism, depression and severe panic attacks related to her mental illness.

Times of crisis are also times for tough decisions, as Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said in his economic statement last week. The province has already made the tough but smart decision to stick with its economic stimulus plan. Standing firm on the commitment to early learning is another tough but smart choice.

The next bold move the government must make is to stick to its guns on a comprehensive review of Ontario’s broken social assistance system.

On June 23, 2009, the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) held a forum on the government’s upcoming review of the provincial social assistance system. This review is part of Ontario’s new Poverty Reduction Strategy and was restated in the 2009 budget.

Crystal Chin knows well the problems associated with the current Social Assistance system. As a young adult with cerebral palsy, Crystal receives benefits from the Ontario Disability Support Program. But these benefits are inadequate, both financially and in terms of other supports. At a public forum hosted by the Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) on …