When an Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipient turns 65, they may qualify for Old Age Security (OAS) benefits. OAS is a federally administered monthly pension that is available to seniors aged 65 and older who meet the legal status and residence requirements. In addition, OAS recipients with low income may also receive additional income support via the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). Usually, receipt of both OAS and GIS will disqualify those 65 and older from remaining financially eligible for ODSP.
For “double-disabled” couples on ODSP with differing ages, these varied interacting benefits can create an administrative headache. This is because the member of the couple who is under 65, who remains eligible for ODSP, must have their benefits recalculated since their partner is no longer ODSP eligible due to receipt of OAS and GIS. During the OAS application stage, in the year before turning 65, ODSP recipients should inform their caseworkers that they have completed an OAS application and that this may affect their ODSP entitlement. They may also want to sign authorizations allowing ODSP to communicate with the federal government and to deduct the OAS and GIS amounts from ODSP. Recipients turning 65 who proactively do this will mitigate against having to pay ODSP an overpayment when they begin to receive OAS and GIS.
The Income Security Advocacy Centre provided support to Willowdale Community Legal Services in advocating for their client, the younger member of a “double-disabled” couple, who was assessed an overpayment when her partner received OAS and GIS. After her partner informed their ODSP caseworker that he was turning 65 and would receive OAS and GIS, the caseworker reduced the client’s benefits and charged the couple an overpayment for the OAS and GIS income that her partner received. This created an overpayment that, if upheld, would have allowed ODSP to earn double recovery at the expense of this low-income elderly couple living with disabilities and language barriers.
The Social Benefits Tribunal affirmed our submission that the overpayment assessed by ODSP was incorrect and that ODSP failed to provide the couple with procedural fairness by not explaining how the overpayment was calculated. The Tribunal found that this “case involves complex legislation and it should not fall to the [couple], being two elderly individuals with limited English language skills and disabilities, to determine the correct calculation.” Accordingly, the Tribunal rescinded the overpayment and ordered ODSP to pay back the couple any amount already recovered from them.
Read the Social Benefits Tribunal’s decision here (PDF).