The provincial government has asked for input into the upcoming 2019 provincial Budget. There are currently two pre-budget consultation processes that you can plug into: The Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs is conducting hearings across the province and accepting written submissions until 5:00pm on January 29. The Minister of Finance is hosting …
Social Assistance Rates
Open Letter to Minister MacLeod: Five Principles for the 100-day Review
More than 1100 people and nearly 100 organizations from across Ontario have signed this letter to Minister Lisa MacLeod, which we sent today to her office and the offices of all Ontario’s MPPs. If you missed signing this letter and want to take action, please send an email to Minister MacLeod voicing your support for …
OW and ODSP Rates and the OCB 2018 / Les taux d’OT, du POSPH et de la POE 2018
– la version française suit dessous – Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates are being increased later this month, as announced on July 31, 2018. As in past years, we have created a rates sheet to let people on social assistance, and people who work with them, know what these increases mean. …
Ontario’s Social Assistance System: 100 days to fix it or to break it?
This post, by Jennefer Laidley at ISAC, originally appeared on the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) blog on Thursday, August 16, 2018 Eleven years ago, I started work at the Income Security Advocacy Centre, a legal clinic advocating for improvements to the income benefit programs available to low-income Ontarians, with social assistance as a …
There is nothing compassionate about Minister MacLeod’s announcement: Ontario’s cuts to social assistance will hurt the most vulnerable in Ontario
Minister MacLeod’s announcement to cut social assistance rates by 1.5 per cent will take approximately $150 million out of the hands of people who are among the most vulnerable in Ontario. “People on social assistance continue to live well below the poverty line and would have used the additional much-needed money to pay for basic …
Future of OW/ODSP Changes Uncertain: Take Action!
– la version française suit dessous – A few weeks ago, we circulated information about changes that are slated to take effect in Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program starting this fall, and others that are already in place. Since then, over 7,100 of you have downloaded this information, showing us that these changes are …
Important Changes Coming to OW and ODSP / Changements importants aux programmes d’OT et du POSPH
NOTE: As of June 31, 2018, all of these changes are now “on pause” and will not come into force this fall as scheduled. Please see these links for more information: http://incomesecurity.org/policy-advocacy/ontarios-cuts-to-social-assistance-will-hurt-the-most-vulnerable/ http://incomesecurity.org/public-education/ontarios-social-assistance-system-100-days-to-fix-it-or-to-break-it/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ – la version française suit dessous – A number of changes to Ontario Works and ODSP rules have recently been made or are …
Ontario Budget 2018: ISAC Analysis and Budget Details
Important First Steps to Transformation but No Meaningful Progress on Rates The 2018 Ontario Budget introduced today proposes to make a number of critically important changes to social assistance and other benefit systems, which would start to move the system away from the punitive, intrusive system that currently exists and toward the supportive approach that …
Ontario Budget 2018: Take Action on Income Security / Passons à l’action pour la sécurité du revenu
– la version française suit dessous – It’s pre-Budget time in Ontario. As we noted recently, now’s the time to tell the Government and the Opposition parties that they must take bold steps on income security in Ontario. These steps must include major investments in transforming social assistance, starting with raising the rates, and employment standards enforcement. …
A Roadmap for Change: Tools You Can Use to Have Your Voice Heard
– la version française suit dessous – A new report called “Income Security: A Roadmap for Change” was released on November 2, 2017. The Roadmap was written by three working groups that were asked by the Minister of Community and Social Services in 2016 to give advice to the government on how to reform Ontario’s …
