ISAC’s 2026 Ontario Works (OW) & Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) Rates and Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) Rates Sheet is now available.
The Rates Sheet includes:
- The 1.9% ODSP increase to Basic Needs and Maximum Shelter amounts due to inflation-based adjustments effective July 1, 2026
- Rates for different family types on both OW and ODSP, and OCB amounts
- Notes on eligibility and other available provincial and federal supports
Download the rates sheet by clicking here. French version to come.
Social Assistance is Stuck in Time and OW Recipients Are Paying the Price
Every year, ISAC publishes the rates sheet so that Ontarians on social assistance, their advocates, and anyone paying attention can see what Ontario’s social assistance programs provide. This year, we’re calling out what the numbers actually mean and we’re launching a campaign to demand change.
The 2026 Rates Sheet Is Here. But OW Recipients Get Nothing, Again.
This July, social assistance rates are going up, but not for everyone. ODSP recipients will see a 1.9% increase in their core rates. Families with children will see a very small increase in the OCB. These are modest gains, and we welcome them.
But for OW recipients, 2026 marks the eighth consecutive year that rates have been frozen with no adjustment for inflation. For single adults, that rate remains $733 per month, the same as it was in 2018.
What Eight Years of Frozen Rates Actually Means
Since 2018, prices in Ontario have risen by 23%. That means the $733 that a single adult on OW receives today buys dramatically less than it did eight years ago.
In real terms, that single person has effectively seen their monthly income fall by nearly $140, or more than $1,700 per year. That money has been quietly eroded through inaction, while rent, groceries, transit, gas, and every other basic cost have climbed steadily higher.
This income gap is the difference between being able to buy groceries at the end of the month or going without. It results in kids going to school hungry, food banks stretched beyond capacity, more people facing precarious housing or sleeping on our streets.
Who Is Actually on OW?
OW is designed as a short-term bridge, but a bridge to nowhere if rates leave people too destabilized to move forward. OW recipients are single parents who are the sole caregivers for their children, young people who can’t find adequate work, full-time unpaid caregivers supporting elderly or disabled family members, and people who are working but not getting enough hours to pay their bills.
Our research finds that more than half of OW recipients report health or disability barriers to employment, yet a complex application process keeps them trapped on the lower OW rate rather than accessing ODSP. Once recipients find employment and start earning, their problems don’t end. Their social assistance is clawed back after only about a dozen hours of work at minimum wage. These low rates and punishing clawback rules destabilize people and prevent them from saving, planning, or getting on solid ground.
It’s beyond time for the social assistance system to catch up to today’s realities
ISAC is launching the “Social Assistance Rates are Stuck in Time” campaign to call on the Ontario government to act on OW rates specifically. Treating OW recipients as if it’s still 2018 is a choice – one that is making the poorest Ontarians poorer every single year.
We are calling on the provincial government to:
- Index Ontario Works to inflation so that rates reflect the real cost of living going forward
- Allow OW recipients to keep more of their social assistance income when they work, by reforming clawback rules that punish employment
These changes are the bare minimum to stop the ongoing, year-over-year erosion of purchasing power that OW recipients have been subjected to for nearly a decade, and to give recipients a fighting chance to get out of poverty.
You Can Help: Send a letter to our elected officials and let them know it’s time for change
Elected officials need to know that change is needed now!
Send a letter between now and July 31, 2026, when this year’s rates take effect, to let them know that Ontarians can’t wait. You can use the letter writing tool linked below, or if you want use a plain text version of this letter, click here for the Word doc version (immediate download will begin) and find your local MPP by typing in your address here.
Every letter sent is another crack in the silence around OW-enforced poverty. Every letter sent makes it harder for elected officials to look away by letting them know you care about this issue.
Keeping people on social assistance in dire poverty has not worked. Eight years of frozen rates have not moved people off OW. This approach has just made things worse. We’re done waiting. And we hope you’ll join us.