To receive a post-secondary education, students living with disabilities require support and accommodation that costs more than what abled students need. Accordingly, students living with disabilities in Ontario rely on various grants to help finance their education under the Ontario Student Assistance Program. In the process of receiving these grants, the student’s post-secondary school breaks down these grant amounts into “educational” and “non-educational” expenses. Unfortunately, this practice impacts students with disabilities who also rely on ODSP for support in financing their education.
ODSP claws back the “non-educational” student grants from ODSP recipients. ODSP justifies this clawback because it views the “non-educational” grants as additional compensation to the basic needs allowance ODSP already provides. However, this narrow view fails to account for what ODSP recipients may actually use the “non-educational” grants for – educational and disability-related supports they need to complete their education.
The Income Security Advocacy Centre represented an ODSP recipient who relied on her “non-educational” grants to pay for psychotherapy and service dog supports that she needed to attend classes and complete her studies. ISAC challenged ODSP’s practice of failing to exempt these supports from the basic needs allowance calculation as an incorrect interpretation of the governing legislation.
The Social Benefits Tribunal agreed that this ODSP practice did not align with the Act’s purpose to incentivize and support persons with disabilities in their educational endeavours. Accordingly, the Tribunal reimbursed our client for the “non-educational” student grants that ODSP clawed back.
Read the Social Benefits Tribunal’s decision here.