A K-Cap Rally Turned Positive
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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ALERT added June 5th, 2011.
An email has been received from Minister Madeline Meilleur in response to this K-Cap rally turned positive event. It kind of puts a damper on thing so please read it and share the link to help spread the word. This year is an election year!!!
April 7, 2011
NOTE: A Quick Response was received from M.P.P. Gerretsen's Office so I'm adding the update to below in an effort to share the information with KCAP. It was requested that I do this, but there has been no response to the email that was sent to KCAP. It will also be forwarded to KCAP by lettermail as well.
Please read the reply letters that are pasted below.
On Friday KCAP (Kingston Coalition Against Poverty) held a rally at Skeleton Park, made some speeches, socialized and ate food brought to us by a Union. We then we marched down Princess St. to John Gerretsen's office. He's the MPP for Kingston.
An appointment had been scheduled but when we showed up in large numbers and the office said we couldn't record the meeting or take pictures, people got rather mad and loud mouthed. I don't blame them. Whatever happened to democracy? Are they afraid that what they said could be used against them? They're right, it can be. But if they are in power, are doing nothing, and refuse to let us use a device to record the proof, then we have to find some other way.
Eventually the MPP stuck his head out the door. The volume of the crowd got louder screaming for rights, and I screamed even louder over top of them. I asked the MPP, right there in the hall, why I had to deal with what I have to on ODSP... and I told a piece of my story. I said, I am disabled. I didn't commit a crime, and yet I am hungry.
He actually stopped and listened. A few minutes later, others chimed in with their stories. He then started to say, the government is making it better (referring to the special diet allowance). I pulled out my computer and the facts and tried to find the file that would show him proof of how they were not. I couldn't find it, but I did manage to find some other files that showed the cruelty of the program. I even found the directive 11.1 that says the clients, not the office workers, are accountable for income support calculation mistakes, and then asked him if a criminal that just murdered someone is required to self-report to the police?
He was now listening.
Finally, I asked him what he was going to do about it. He said he would talk to the Minister of Community and Social Services. I asked him if he would write up a report and share it with us. He said yes, he would send it to me. The KCAP leader wanted it sent to him instead. John said he would send it to me, and me only. Yikes.
Anyway, I gave him my card with the contact info on it. He read it, saw I live in Rideaucrest Towers and then said he was responsible for building all that affordable housing.
I said thank you, but that was 20 years ago. Kingston now has one of the worst records in the province for vacancies now.
I then quoted out the deprivation index that was just published by the Poverty Roundtable in Kingston
Anyway, I then wrote a follow up letter and a graph to hammer the points home and give him something to reference when he was in Toronto on Monday.
I was hugely impressed with how his office got the info to Kingston pronto and how he wrote back to acknowledge receipt pronto. I'm now waiting for the summary report.
Here is the summary:
Dear Mr. Gerretsen,
I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to us the other day. We all have some very real stories to share and some of them are hard to cope with. I appreciate you being patient enough to listen to us speak above the rowdiness and anger that was also present in the foyer of LaSalle Mews on Friday.
I would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief summary of some of the points we were raising on Friday.
The biggest concern raised was that we don't have enough to live on. Ivan, from K-Cap was asking for the rates to be raised. He has a very valid point because according to the Bank of Canada Inflation calculator (Source: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/inflation_calc.html)
The maximum ODSP rate of $930.00 for a single adult in 1993 when the rates were frozen is worth 1,287.61 today.
If you look at it another way, since the Liberals came into power and started raising the rates, the $930.00 income we got in 2003 is now worth $1,068.41.
The maximum allowance a single adult with a disability can receive on ODSP is $1,042 without the special diet allowance which, incidentally, I don’t qualify for.
Single Recipient basic needs = $578
Single recipient shelter = $464
Total $1,042
This meanswe have $26.41 less buying power on ODSP than I did since the Liberals came into power.
Now this picture is still not entirely accurate because if you look at what costs went up and what costs went down, you will see that the cost of food, rented shelter, public transportation and hydro went up, home ownership, car ownership, clothing, recreation and entertainment, etc., went down. This therefore skews the accuracy of what the inflation calculator is telling you.
Mr. Gerretsen, when Mike Harris created the ODSP program, his goal was to separate disability from social services so that our needs could be better met.
In the Ontarian’s With Disabilities Act, 2001 (ODA), it says the following in the preamble:
The Ontario Disability Support Program Act, 1997 provides a separate income and employment support program for eligible persons with disabilities. It removes persons with disabilities from the welfare system and provides them with assistance that recognizes their unique needs. (Source: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_01o32_e.htm)
So why is it that, when you look at the following graph to see how my ODSP income is distributed each month, you can see that there is no wiggle room to be able to pay for cable, take more Access Buses to volunteer or paid jobs, take part in a social or recreational activity, to look for jobs, etc?
The Access Bus is a disability related expense for which there is no compensation and yet the City of Kingston created a Municipal Transportation Subsidy for Kingston Transit users. Kingston Transit is now back before human rights because they started to take away bus stops on the accessible routes and it could no longer meet my needs.
I also have to take buses ODSP office and to the housing office to prove accountability. You may not realize it, but the local ODSP office does not accept email and if I send the information by fax, they are misplaced or lost regularly. If this happens, then the computer doesn’t get the data entered on time and a computer in Toronto will automatically generate a nastily worded letter that tells us our income has been negatively affected.
That’s why, the other day, I read to you a section of Directive 11.1 that says:
A similar incident happened just recently with trying to get a prescription for 2 pairs of glasses filled. I knew I needed a letter to prove medical need for the second pair, but the local office wouldn’t take it. Instead, they just rejected my application.
I asked for an Internal Review and again, offered the letter, and again it was refused and so were the glasses.
I now had to take the case to the Social Benefits Tribunal. After 3 months of waiting, we held an early resolution meeting over the phone. I read the letter to them and they said, “Why didn’t you hand it in?” I explained that the local office wouldn’t take it so I was asked to fax it in. I did.
A few days later I got a phone call asking for another glasses prescription. They didn’t understand how to read it so they didn’t realize that both pairs of glasses were written on the prescription. I asked the optometrist for another copy and he sent one identical to the first.
I went to David’s Optical to learn how to read the prescription so I could take it to ODSP and explain it to them. Fortunately another worker was brought in on the case and I didn’t have to insult them by trying to teach them what the prescription said.
I then got a call from ODSP asking for a letter to prove there was a medical need. I couldn’t believe it. They’d lost it AGAIN. I refused to send them a third fax. Instead I told them to look on my workers desk. They found the letter and I now have the glasses.
How much did that whole process cost? There were 2 workers involved in the Kingston office, a Regional Director, 3 people involved at the social benefits tribunal, an investigator and possibly a lawyer because I got a 20 page document to explain the Kingston office’s view that I don’t qualify for the glasses, and then 2 more workers involved in the Kingston office.
To add insult to injury I then get a letter from the Social Benefits Tribunal to say the issue has been resolved because I gave them the letter.
Here is a direct quote:
As a result of this letter and, what I have discovered is an inability to get some oversight put into the Kingston office so these mistakes that cause an incredible amount of stress and make me emotionally sick from time to time, I am refusing to close the Social Benefits Tribunal File. I have the glasses, but I intend to go to the tribunal to try to demand that some oversight be put into the Kingston office.
If you can suggest a better solution, by all means, please do. The ODSP program shortchanges the funding so much I can’t afford to take part in anything fun and stress-busting anymore, so when the mistakes happen, I get depressed and once had to be hospitalized because of lack of food and the harassment from the local ODSP office. The cost of that admission where I was given no medication, full privileges and advice from the psychiatrist to enjoy a 9 day holiday with food courtesy of OHIP, was $7,218.00.
I therefore ask you to ask Minister Madeleine Meilleur the following questions:
Thank you once again for listening to our stories the other day. We need three things, to raise the rates, to remove the barriers, including attitudinal barriers, that are preventing us from working, and to get some oversight in how the ODSP program is being administered in the Kingston office.
I look forward to your reply outlining the results of your meeting with Minister Madeleine Meilleur soon.
Sincerely,
Louise
Reply from M.P.P. Gerretsen's office. (this letter came both by email and lettermail)
This letter is also worth sharing because it shows a strong attempt has been made to get some solid answers to the questions that were asked in the summary letter I wrote after the rally.
May 10, 2011
Dear Ms. Bark,
John Gerretsen, MPP for Kingston and the Islands, has forwarded me your letter regarding social assistance in Ontario. I appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
I regret the difficulties you encountered in contacting ministry staff. Please be assured the Ministry of Community and Social Services takes customer service seriously and we are committed to meeting our customer service standards.
We have undertaken several initiatives to streamline service delivery, minimize duplication, enhance customer service and provide additional staff training to increase awareness of the client population.
In response to your questions about employment income, please note, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is a program of last resort and is intended to supplement other income. All reasonable efforts must be made to obtain any financial resources to which a recipient or family may be entitled.
Therefore, when a recipient’s needs are being met through other sources, such as employment income, the need for assistance is reduced.
The ministry recognizes that many people with disabilities can work and want to work. We have introduced a number of incentives and benefits designed to support and encourage ODSP recipients who are working. The ministry’s incentives and benefits include:
For more information about the treatment of employment earnings under ODSP, please read ODSP Directives 5.1 – Definition and Treatment of income and 5.3 – Deductions from Employment and Training Income at www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/directives/ODSP_incomesupport.aspx.
With respect to your concern about transportation costs, please note that medical transportation costs are covered by ODSP whenever these costs exceed $15 in a month regardless of the length or number of trips required. Transportation costs to and from any therapy or medical treatment provided by an approved healthcare professional are eligible for coverage.
For more information about coverage for medical transportation under ODSP, please read ODSP income support directive 9.12 – Mandatory Special Necessities available at: www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/directives/ODSP_incomesupport.aspx.
Our government is always looking for ways to improve our programs more effectively support clients. Our 2011 Budget proposed another increase to social assistance rates. This will be the seventh increase made to the rates since 2005, bringing the total increase to 13.7 per cent.
Since taking office, our government has also made a number of other improvements for individuals receiving assistance, including:
For more information on the social assistance review, please visit www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/social_assistance_review.aspx. For more information regarding the progress of the proposed accessibility standards, please visit www.ontario.ca/accesson.
Should you have further inquiries, I encourage you to contact Val Esford, ODSP Program Manager in my ministry’s South East Region Office at 613-545-4560.
While we know we still have more work to do, our government is committed to making positive changes.
Once again, thank you for writing.
Sincerely,
Madeline Meilleur
Minister
Please read my other Blogs:
Transit: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com
An email has been received from Minister Madeline Meilleur in response to this K-Cap rally turned positive event. It kind of puts a damper on thing so please read it and share the link to help spread the word. This year is an election year!!!
April 7, 2011
NOTE: A Quick Response was received from M.P.P. Gerretsen's Office so I'm adding the update to below in an effort to share the information with KCAP. It was requested that I do this, but there has been no response to the email that was sent to KCAP. It will also be forwarded to KCAP by lettermail as well.
Please read the reply letters that are pasted below.
On Friday KCAP (Kingston Coalition Against Poverty) held a rally at Skeleton Park, made some speeches, socialized and ate food brought to us by a Union. We then we marched down Princess St. to John Gerretsen's office. He's the MPP for Kingston.
An appointment had been scheduled but when we showed up in large numbers and the office said we couldn't record the meeting or take pictures, people got rather mad and loud mouthed. I don't blame them. Whatever happened to democracy? Are they afraid that what they said could be used against them? They're right, it can be. But if they are in power, are doing nothing, and refuse to let us use a device to record the proof, then we have to find some other way.
Eventually the MPP stuck his head out the door. The volume of the crowd got louder screaming for rights, and I screamed even louder over top of them. I asked the MPP, right there in the hall, why I had to deal with what I have to on ODSP... and I told a piece of my story. I said, I am disabled. I didn't commit a crime, and yet I am hungry.
He actually stopped and listened. A few minutes later, others chimed in with their stories. He then started to say, the government is making it better (referring to the special diet allowance). I pulled out my computer and the facts and tried to find the file that would show him proof of how they were not. I couldn't find it, but I did manage to find some other files that showed the cruelty of the program. I even found the directive 11.1 that says the clients, not the office workers, are accountable for income support calculation mistakes, and then asked him if a criminal that just murdered someone is required to self-report to the police?
He was now listening.
Finally, I asked him what he was going to do about it. He said he would talk to the Minister of Community and Social Services. I asked him if he would write up a report and share it with us. He said yes, he would send it to me. The KCAP leader wanted it sent to him instead. John said he would send it to me, and me only. Yikes.
Anyway, I gave him my card with the contact info on it. He read it, saw I live in Rideaucrest Towers and then said he was responsible for building all that affordable housing.
I said thank you, but that was 20 years ago. Kingston now has one of the worst records in the province for vacancies now.
I then quoted out the deprivation index that was just published by the Poverty Roundtable in Kingston
Anyway, I then wrote a follow up letter and a graph to hammer the points home and give him something to reference when he was in Toronto on Monday.
I was hugely impressed with how his office got the info to Kingston pronto and how he wrote back to acknowledge receipt pronto. I'm now waiting for the summary report.
Here is the summary:
Dear Mr. Gerretsen,
I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to us the other day. We all have some very real stories to share and some of them are hard to cope with. I appreciate you being patient enough to listen to us speak above the rowdiness and anger that was also present in the foyer of LaSalle Mews on Friday.
I would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief summary of some of the points we were raising on Friday.
The biggest concern raised was that we don't have enough to live on. Ivan, from K-Cap was asking for the rates to be raised. He has a very valid point because according to the Bank of Canada Inflation calculator (Source: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/inflation_calc.html)
The maximum ODSP rate of $930.00 for a single adult in 1993 when the rates were frozen is worth 1,287.61 today.
If you look at it another way, since the Liberals came into power and started raising the rates, the $930.00 income we got in 2003 is now worth $1,068.41.
The maximum allowance a single adult with a disability can receive on ODSP is $1,042 without the special diet allowance which, incidentally, I don’t qualify for.
Single Recipient basic needs = $578
Single recipient shelter = $464
Total $1,042
This meanswe have $26.41 less buying power on ODSP than I did since the Liberals came into power.
Now this picture is still not entirely accurate because if you look at what costs went up and what costs went down, you will see that the cost of food, rented shelter, public transportation and hydro went up, home ownership, car ownership, clothing, recreation and entertainment, etc., went down. This therefore skews the accuracy of what the inflation calculator is telling you.
Mr. Gerretsen, when Mike Harris created the ODSP program, his goal was to separate disability from social services so that our needs could be better met.
In the Ontarian’s With Disabilities Act, 2001 (ODA), it says the following in the preamble:
The Ontario Disability Support Program Act, 1997 provides a separate income and employment support program for eligible persons with disabilities. It removes persons with disabilities from the welfare system and provides them with assistance that recognizes their unique needs. (Source: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_01o32_e.htm)
So why is it that, when you look at the following graph to see how my ODSP income is distributed each month, you can see that there is no wiggle room to be able to pay for cable, take more Access Buses to volunteer or paid jobs, take part in a social or recreational activity, to look for jobs, etc?
The Access Bus is a disability related expense for which there is no compensation and yet the City of Kingston created a Municipal Transportation Subsidy for Kingston Transit users. Kingston Transit is now back before human rights because they started to take away bus stops on the accessible routes and it could no longer meet my needs.
I also have to take buses ODSP office and to the housing office to prove accountability. You may not realize it, but the local ODSP office does not accept email and if I send the information by fax, they are misplaced or lost regularly. If this happens, then the computer doesn’t get the data entered on time and a computer in Toronto will automatically generate a nastily worded letter that tells us our income has been negatively affected.
That’s why, the other day, I read to you a section of Directive 11.1 that says:
Recovery of OverpaymentsI have serious concerns about the part that is highlighted above because I have been sent cheques by mistake and it led to a 4 month nightmare to, first get them to take the cheques back, and then cope with the cash shortfall and nasty letters while they continued to make one mistake after the other for the next 4 months. I put the employees at the ODSP office through 3 income reviews and literally had them pulling numbers out of the computer while I did the calculations by hand, before we got it all figured out.
All overpayments are subject to recovery. Only under exceptional circumstances will overpayments be considered uncollectable.
Administrative Errors
Overpayments may, at times, result from administrative errors such as miscalculations or failure to act on information. These overpayments are recoverable.
When a recipient provides information that would reduce the amount of income support, every effort must be made to promptly action the information in order to prevent an overpayment. If the information is not processed and the recipient receives an amount he/she knows to be incorrect, the onus is on the recipient to notify ODSP staff of this error. The overpayment is to be properly documented on the file and action taken to avoid recurrence of the problem.
A similar incident happened just recently with trying to get a prescription for 2 pairs of glasses filled. I knew I needed a letter to prove medical need for the second pair, but the local office wouldn’t take it. Instead, they just rejected my application.
I asked for an Internal Review and again, offered the letter, and again it was refused and so were the glasses.
I now had to take the case to the Social Benefits Tribunal. After 3 months of waiting, we held an early resolution meeting over the phone. I read the letter to them and they said, “Why didn’t you hand it in?” I explained that the local office wouldn’t take it so I was asked to fax it in. I did.
A few days later I got a phone call asking for another glasses prescription. They didn’t understand how to read it so they didn’t realize that both pairs of glasses were written on the prescription. I asked the optometrist for another copy and he sent one identical to the first.
I went to David’s Optical to learn how to read the prescription so I could take it to ODSP and explain it to them. Fortunately another worker was brought in on the case and I didn’t have to insult them by trying to teach them what the prescription said.
I then got a call from ODSP asking for a letter to prove there was a medical need. I couldn’t believe it. They’d lost it AGAIN. I refused to send them a third fax. Instead I told them to look on my workers desk. They found the letter and I now have the glasses.
How much did that whole process cost? There were 2 workers involved in the Kingston office, a Regional Director, 3 people involved at the social benefits tribunal, an investigator and possibly a lawyer because I got a 20 page document to explain the Kingston office’s view that I don’t qualify for the glasses, and then 2 more workers involved in the Kingston office.
To add insult to injury I then get a letter from the Social Benefits Tribunal to say the issue has been resolved because I gave them the letter.
Here is a direct quote:
The above-referenced appeal concerns a decision of the Director, Ontario Disability Support Program to deny the Appellant's request for a vision care benefit to cover the cost of a second pair of eyeglasses.My family read it and blamed me for not being responsible enough. I get this all the time. The ODSP office should not be holding us to account for the mistakes of their workers.
Following an Early Resolution Process teleconference the Appellant provided the Director with verification that the second pair of glasses were required for medical reasons. As a result of the information the decision has been reversed.
It is my respectful opinion that the issue in this appeal has been resolved.
As a result of this letter and, what I have discovered is an inability to get some oversight put into the Kingston office so these mistakes that cause an incredible amount of stress and make me emotionally sick from time to time, I am refusing to close the Social Benefits Tribunal File. I have the glasses, but I intend to go to the tribunal to try to demand that some oversight be put into the Kingston office.
If you can suggest a better solution, by all means, please do. The ODSP program shortchanges the funding so much I can’t afford to take part in anything fun and stress-busting anymore, so when the mistakes happen, I get depressed and once had to be hospitalized because of lack of food and the harassment from the local ODSP office. The cost of that admission where I was given no medication, full privileges and advice from the psychiatrist to enjoy a 9 day holiday with food courtesy of OHIP, was $7,218.00.
I therefore ask you to ask Minister Madeleine Meilleur the following questions:
- How can we get the ODSP offices investigated and the appropriate training and/or extra workers added to each office so that papers aren’t lost, not entered into the computer on time, or the mistakes, which are common-place, be stopped?
- hy people on ODSP are being treated like we’re welfare recipients who must be held to account using heavy handed tactics to get prove financial accountability?
- How can we get the wording of the letters that effectively blame us for mistakes in the ODSP office changed?
- Why, when we try to work, are we being penalized by ODSP and housing with claw backs based on our gross income that in effect makes it impossible to AFFORD to go to work?
Thank you once again for listening to our stories the other day. We need three things, to raise the rates, to remove the barriers, including attitudinal barriers, that are preventing us from working, and to get some oversight in how the ODSP program is being administered in the Kingston office.
I look forward to your reply outlining the results of your meeting with Minister Madeleine Meilleur soon.
Sincerely,
Louise
Reply from M.P.P. Gerretsen's office. (this letter came both by email and lettermail)
JOHN GERRETSEN, MPP
Kingston and The Islands
April 7, 2011
Dear Louise
Thank you for your e-mail of April 4, 2011, regarding concerns you have with respect to social service benefits and their delivery. I appreciate you summarizing the concerns expressed at the rally in front of my office on April 1, 2011.
I am enclosing herein a copy of the letter I have now sent to the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur with respect to the amount paid to social service recipients and the issue of having to fill out new medical forms in order to qualify for a special diet allowance. I will contact you further once I hear from her. As discussed at the rally, I would appreciate it if you would circulate my letter to Minister Meilleur to KCAP and to any others who indicated they wished to receive a copy.
I also enclose herein a copy of an additional letter I have sent to Minister Meilleur enclosing a copy of your e-mail and requesting that she respond to same. I thought it best to forward a copy of your e-mail directly to the Minister since some of the issues you raised were specific to you. I will provide you with a copy of her response when I hear back from her.
Thank you for bringing these matters to my attention.
Yours truly
John Gerretsen, M.P.P.
Kingston and The Islands
/ew
EnclosuresCommunity Office
LaSalle Mews, 303 Bagot Street, Suite #2, Kingston, ON K7K 5W7
Tel 613-547-2385 | Fax 613-547-5001 | Email jgerretsen.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
JOHN GERRETSEN, M.P.P.
Kingston and The Islands
April 7, 2011
Hon. Madeleine Meilleur
Minister of Community
and Social Services
6th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
Dear Ms Meilleur:
On April 1, 2011, the Kingston Coalition Against Poverty held a rally in Kingston with the theme "We Won't Be Fooled Again A March and Rally to Raise the Rates". The rally ended at my constituency office where the protesters relayed some personal experiences about living on ODSP and OW benefits and expressed their concerns about proposed changes to the special diet allowance.
One of the issues the protesters raised with me was the requirement that everyone currently receiving a special diet allowance needs to get an up-dated medical form completed to ensure that they still qualify. The protesters felt that this requirement was creating a stressful situation for those whose medical condition qualified them under the old rules and whose condition was included in the new rules, especially those who were only recently granted a special diet allowance.
The major concern raised by KCAP and those participating in the rally was that most ODSP and OW recipients are unable to live on the amount they currently receive each month. Our office receives numerous inquiries from social assistance recipients who cannot afford their rent. The reality here in Kingston is that the housing portion of the ODSP and OW benefits is no where near market rent rates and recipients are having to use part of the personal needs portion of their benefit to cover their rent, which means they do not have sufficient funds to buy food or clothing or insurance etc.
I would appreciate it if you would consider these comments and provide me with your response so that I may share it with those who took the time to participate in last week's rally.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
John Gerretsen, M.P.P.
Kingston and The Islands
/ew
cc: KCAP protesters
This letter is also worth sharing because it shows a strong attempt has been made to get some solid answers to the questions that were asked in the summary letter I wrote after the rally.
JOHN GERRETSEN, M.P.P.The response from M.P.P. Gerretsen's office has been hugely appreciated. Here's hoping a timely and comprehensive response will be forthcoming from Minister Madeline Meilleur as well.
Kingston and The Islands
April 7, 2011
Hon. Madeleine Meilleur
Minister of Community
and Social Services
6th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, ON M7A 2C4
Dear Madeline
I enclose herein a copy of an e-mail received from my constituent, Louise Bark, who participated in the KCAP rally at my office on April 1, 2011.
You will note that Ms Bark has provided a very thoughtful rationale for her support for additional funding for social service recipients and trust you will find it self-explanatory. She also provides a very detailed account of a recent interaction with the local ODSP office regarding her medical need for a second pair of subscription eye glasses and her frustration in dealing with errors that, she feels, occur as the result of errors by local ODSP office staff.
Ms Bark ends her e-mail with a list of four questions that she would like to receive answers to. I would appreciate receiving your response to her comments and questions so that I may share it with her.
Thank you for your anticipated co-operation in providing a timely response to this inquiry.
Yours truly,
John Gerretsen, M.P.P.
Kingston and The Islands
/ew
Enclosure
cc: Louise Bark
May 10, 2011
Dear Ms. Bark,
John Gerretsen, MPP for Kingston and the Islands, has forwarded me your letter regarding social assistance in Ontario. I appreciate the time you have taken to share your concerns and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
I regret the difficulties you encountered in contacting ministry staff. Please be assured the Ministry of Community and Social Services takes customer service seriously and we are committed to meeting our customer service standards.
We have undertaken several initiatives to streamline service delivery, minimize duplication, enhance customer service and provide additional staff training to increase awareness of the client population.
In response to your questions about employment income, please note, the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is a program of last resort and is intended to supplement other income. All reasonable efforts must be made to obtain any financial resources to which a recipient or family may be entitled.
Therefore, when a recipient’s needs are being met through other sources, such as employment income, the need for assistance is reduced.
The ministry recognizes that many people with disabilities can work and want to work. We have introduced a number of incentives and benefits designed to support and encourage ODSP recipients who are working. The ministry’s incentives and benefits include:
- A 50 per cent exemption on net employment income for ODSP recipients who are not enrolled in secondary or post-secondary education. This means that only 50 per cent of net income is deducted from a recipient’s ODSP income support payment;
- Fully exempting, as income and assets, the earnings of ODSP recipients who are enrolled full-time in post-secondary education;
- A Work-Related Benefit of $100 a month to help with employment costs, such as transportation or work clothing, for each family member who reports employment income and who is not in full-time post-secondary education;
- An employment and training start-up benefit providing up to $500 in any 12-month period, to help recipients pay for job-related expenses like work uniforms, equipment and professional fees;
- Deductions for informal child care costs of up to $600 per month, per child; and
- Deductions for disability related employment expenses up to $300.
For more information about the treatment of employment earnings under ODSP, please read ODSP Directives 5.1 – Definition and Treatment of income and 5.3 – Deductions from Employment and Training Income at www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/directives/ODSP_incomesupport.aspx.
With respect to your concern about transportation costs, please note that medical transportation costs are covered by ODSP whenever these costs exceed $15 in a month regardless of the length or number of trips required. Transportation costs to and from any therapy or medical treatment provided by an approved healthcare professional are eligible for coverage.
For more information about coverage for medical transportation under ODSP, please read ODSP income support directive 9.12 – Mandatory Special Necessities available at: www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/directives/ODSP_incomesupport.aspx.
Our government is always looking for ways to improve our programs more effectively support clients. Our 2011 Budget proposed another increase to social assistance rates. This will be the seventh increase made to the rates since 2005, bringing the total increase to 13.7 per cent.
Since taking office, our government has also made a number of other improvements for individuals receiving assistance, including:
- Simplifying rules around earnings exemptions, so the more someone works, the more money he or she can keep;
- Extending drug, dental and vision care benefits for people leaving social assistance for employment;
- Increasing the Employment Start-up Benefit from $253 to $500; and
- Fully exempting the employment income of social assistance recipients who are enrolled full-time in postsecondary education as both income and assets
- The Social Assistance Review Advisory Council submitted a final report to me on the recommended scope and terms of reference for a comprehensive review in June 2010.
- Expanded the exemption of small payments and in-kind gifts under Ontario Works;
- Shortened the suspension or reduction periods when participation requirements are not met;
- Clarified the shelter allowance calculation for people who share the cost of their accommodation.
- More effective at getting people into jobs by connecting them with the right education and training opportunities, while providing security for those who cannot work;
- Easier to understand;
- Work better with other federal, provincial and municipal income security programs, such as Employment Insurance; and
- Financially sustainable.
For more information on the social assistance review, please visit www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/social/social_assistance_review.aspx. For more information regarding the progress of the proposed accessibility standards, please visit www.ontario.ca/accesson.
Should you have further inquiries, I encourage you to contact Val Esford, ODSP Program Manager in my ministry’s South East Region Office at 613-545-4560.
While we know we still have more work to do, our government is committed to making positive changes.
Once again, thank you for writing.
Sincerely,
Madeline Meilleur
Minister
Please read my other Blogs:
Transit: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com
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