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” work.
Centralized Intake introduced an online application and automated, risk-based eligibility verification process that aimed “to simplify the Ontario Works application process for clients and reduce administration.” Since its launch, Centralized Intake has been expanding in a phased approach through the provincial Intake and Benefits Administration Unit (IBAU), which has been gradually sharing responsibilities for OW intake with municipalities.
On October 1, 2024, a number of regulatory changes came into effect, which began a new phase of Centralized Intake. This new phase, Centralized Intake Expansion, will see some key changes in OW application intake and administration.
While details are still emerging, here are the five things to know about Centralized Intake Expansion:
1. Designation of geographic areas and delivery agents:
Effective October 1, 2024, the Ministry is the new “delivery agent” in ten geographic areas in Ontario, allowing it to take full responsibility for making initial eligibility decisions and notifying the applicants of those decisions. The ten regions are:
- City of Hamilton
- City of Kawartha Lakes and County of Haliburton
- County of Brant and City of Brantford
- County of Northumberland
- County of Peterborough and City of Peterborough
- District Municipality of Muskoka
- Norfolk County and Haldimand County
- Regional Municipality of Niagara
- Regional Municipality of Peel
- Regional Municipality of York
For these ten geographic areas where the Ministry is the delivery agent, a municipality or a District Social Service Administration Board (DSSAB) is designated as a “delivery partner”. The delivery partners now provide casework support and connect social assistance clients to the local support they need.
2. Changes in responsibilities under the new Centralized Intake Expansion:
The Ministry as the delivery agent now handles almost all of the steps in the application process with the support of the IBAU. This includes:
- making initial OW eligibility decisions,
- conducting internal reviews of initial eligibility decisions
- issuing decision notices
- releasing payments
- defending decisions on appeal to the Social Benefits Tribunal (SBT)
The municipalities as delivery partners now manage:
- selected intakes: emergency assistance, temporary care, youth under 18
- active cases, including ongoing eligibility reviews
This is a change in the municipalities’ previous role, where they used to manage all types of applications, including in-person, online, and phone applications to OW. With the phased rollout of the Centralized Intake, the Ministry’s IBAU took over the administration of the online application administration, with now handling the majority of all OW applications.
3. Eligibility Determination:
In the past, when a person applying through Centralized Intake was determined eligible, the Centralized Intake staff transferred the file to the local OW office in the municipality for ongoing eligibility verification and case management. For ineligible cases, the files were still sent to the local OW offices to send out the decision and defend it on appeal.
Now, the Ministry’s Centralized Intake staff will take on the following responsibilities:
- processing the application, completing targeted verifications, and making eligibility decisions
- making eligibility determinations for ineligible cases and send applicable decision letters
- granting, authorizing, and releasing the initial payment in the Social Assistance Management System (SAMS), to issue the payment through overnight processing. Note: Local OW offices will still be responsible for mailing payments and Direct Bank Deposit statements to applicants even though Centralized Intake staff will generate and mail provincial decision letters
- making eligibility decisions on Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) prescribed class and rapid reinstatement cases before referral to ODSP
Centralized Intake staff will now also take on the responsibility for internal reviews of initial eligibility decisions. The staff will now receive Social Benefits Tribunal appeals related to initial eligibility decisions and will defend them by assigning newly appointed Centralized Intake Case Presenting Officers.
4. Promotion of a “Digital First” Approach:
The Centralized Intake Expansion heavily promotes a ”digital first” approach, with policy directives updated to specify that applications must be submitted using the online Social Assistance Digital Application (SADA). If an applicant goes to their local OW office, they will still need to apply through SADA, with the support of an OW caseworker to complete the application if required.
Previously, local OW offices handled in-person applications, but now OW applicants will have to go to the local ODSP office for application-related in-person services. In order to receive in-person services, OW applicants will have to set up an appointment with Centralized Intake staff. ISAC has been told that there will be dedicated Centralized Intake caseworkers to support in-person OW services.
5. Introduction of “no response” letter during the application process:
After applying online, the Ministry may contact an OW applicant to verify the information to complete the application. If it is hard to connect with an applicant:
- Centralized Intake staff are required to make a minimum of 2 attempts to contact an applicant within 4 business days
- If no contact after 4 days, Centralized Intake staff will send applicant a “no-response” letter and the application will be closed
- The applicant will have to reapply if they wish to continue with their application after receiving the letter
As details emerge, concerns remain:
The Ministry aims to complete the full implementation of Centralized Intake by 2025. Their goal is to bring all 47 municipalities and DSSABs in the province under this model by then. Once this is done, the Ministry’s SAR part of the social assistance modernization process will be complete.
As the Centralized Intake Expansion in the ten regions is implemented, we will continue to learn more about the new model. But at the onset, there are concerns around the strong drive towards a “digital first” approach.
Digital First risks leaving behind clients without adequate access to or knowledge of technology, and who may face language barriers. As local OW offices no longer handle in-person applications, access to in-person services for marginalized clients may be compromised. In-person services should be readily available and easy to access in the new system for these reasons.
Furthermore, there is little information available on the evaluation of the initial phases of the Centralized Intake model. As the Ministry rapidly rolls out Centralized Intake Expansion throughout the province, it is unclear how the Ministry is identifying and addressing challenges so that clients do not fall through the cracks of this systemic restructuring.
Despite all of these changes, the Ministry seems to have completely forgotten about “life stabilization”, a key component of the initial Social Assistance Renewal (SAR) plan. “Life stabilization” refers to social support services related to housing, mental health, addiction counselling, and domestic violence supports, among others. These services are necessary to put in place for social assistance recipients to be able to access anything from transit to employment supports. It is alarming that the legislative amendments related to “life stabilization” framework have yet to be proclaimed. What this means is that the legislation that brought forward all of these changes also stated that something should happen with life stabilization, but so far we have seen nothing about it, while the other changes are moving ahead.
The exclusion of a “life stabilization” plan despite the rapid, expansive implementation of some of the other major components of SAR raises questions about the Ministry’s commitment to providing these crucial supports. Ultimately, it risks creating a fragmented social assistance modernization that leaves vulnerable social assistance clients worse off than before.