On Friday, January 24, 2025, ISAC was invited to provide a deputation on our priorities for the 2025 Ontario Budget at a Ministry of Finance budget consultation in North York. Members of the panel included…
The Ministry of Children, Community, and Social Services (MCCSS) first launched Centralized Intake for Ontario Works in 2020 under the Social Assistance Renewal (SAR) plan, which is part of the government’s multi-year social assistance “modernization”…
The Ontario Government’s 2024 Fall Economic Statement (FES) has revealed that the province is in an improved fiscal position compared to earlier projections in the 2024 Budget. This is mainly due to an overall deficit…
ISAC is launching a survey on social assistance today, aimed at gathering data and stories from individuals who are receiving or who have recently received provincial social assistance (OW and ODSP specifically.) We intend to…
This op-ed piece was written by Robin Nobleman and Claudia Calabro Last week, Doug Ford told people living in homeless encampments to “get off your a-s-s and start working like everyone else”. Premier Ford was…
The Robinson Huron Treaty Settlement is a settlement agreement between different levels of government and several First Nations, which has come out of a unique and important court case on treaty obligations. The settlement agreement…
TORONTO, ON – Social assistance rates for Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients will increase today, but Ontarians struggling to get by on Ontario Works (OW) will see no increase to their social assistance incomes…
As of July 2024, Ontario Works (OW) sees no increase or inflation-based adjustment. For the sixth year and counting, OW rates have remained the same despite the ongoing impacts of high inflation on the cost…
Many people who depend on Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support live in deep poverty. They may rely on panhandling to make ends meet, because their income assistance is inadequate to survive. However, for over…
The Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC) is pleased that the Ontario Divisional Court has found that the Social Benefits Tribunal’s practice of issuing “boilerplate” reasons when denying a reconsideration breaches procedural fairness. In recent years,…
Last week, the Ontario government tabled a $214 billion budget for 2024-25, the largest in the province’s history. But if you are among the hundreds of thousands of low income working age Ontarians struggling to…
Ontario is in a state of unprecedented crisis. While the province recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic-induced shock on its socio-economic structure, Ontario’s low-income and vulnerable population have seen their poverty and marginalization increase in almost…