We have recently learned that the Ontario government plans on eliminating 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 …
Public Education
Take Action! Community Legal Clinic Services Under Threat
The provincial government’s recent budget made cuts to a number of public programs and services, which will hurt low-income people in Ontario. This includes cuts to social assistance, public health, library services, prescription coverage for children and youth, public education, and many others. It also includes a massive 30% cut to legal aid funding. And …
Ontario Budget 2019 Announces $1 Billion in OW and ODSP Cuts
– Massive Cuts to Legal Aid Funding Also Announced – The 2019/2020 Ontario Budget was announced today, and creates even more uncertainty for people who receive benefits from the Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) system. While the Budget is short on details about changes to social assistance, it confirms many of …
File Your Taxes: New federal tax credit this year
It’s almost tax time again! For low-income Ontarians, filing your income tax return is important as you may be able to benefit from tax credits that will either increase your income or reduce the amount of taxes you have to pay. Even if you don’t owe any money, you can get refundable credits that will …
End Employment Insurance discrimination against women / Mettre fin à la discrimination
* La version française suit * End Employment Insurance discrimination against women In the mid-1990s, Canada’s unemployment insurance system underwent a massive change. At that time, whether or not an unemployed worker qualified for payments was based on the number of weeks that they had worked before they lost their job. Although there were lots …
Changes Ontario is Proposing to OW and ODSP
On November 22, Minister Lisa MacLeod announced a number of proposed changes to the Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) system. We have prepared several backgrounders to help you understand particular proposals and what they could mean for low-income people in Ontario. We also hosted a one-hour webinar to share our analysis of …
OW & ODSP: What is a “Health Spending Account”? / OT & POSPH : Qu’est-ce qu’un « compte gestion-santé »?
What a “Health Spending Account” might mean to people on OW & ODSP On November 22, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services announced a number of proposed changes to the social assistance system in Ontario. Among these proposed changes is the creation of something called a Health Spending Account. While there are currently …
Improving access to justice for Indigenous people: New inter-regional Gladue Briefs Project
Community legal clinics in the south-west region of Ontario, along with Thunder Bay’s Kinna’aweya legal clinic and the Income Security Advocacy Centre, have joined together in a Gladue Briefs Project with the aim of ensuring that administrative tribunals make decisions that better take into account the circumstances of Indigenous people who appear before them. Background …
Important Survey on How Canada Measures Poverty: Jan 31 deadline
An important consultation is happening right now on the way that Canada measures poverty. The federal government has said that it will make the Market Basket Measure (MBM) Canada’s official poverty line, and will use the MBM to measure its progress on meeting its poverty reduction goals. But if the MBM isn’t set up properly …
ISAC Annual Report / Rapport annuel 2017-2018
– la version française suit dessous – The past year has seen many development in the income security and employment landscape, with many more to come in the near future. Check out our annual report to see the key milestones of our work in 2017-2018, including: The release of Income Security: A Roadmap for Change …
