Submission to Standing Committee on Economic & Financial Affairs
Monday, February 2, 2015
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This is the submission I did to Ontario's Standing Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs, on behalf of the ODSP Action Coalition, on January 30, 2015.
Some of the personal comments I made, like about the cost of the Metro Pass, a haircut, and the cost of food in the grocery store near me vs in another part of Toronto, really had an impact.
Other points that had an impact was the facts about the rate increases for OW vs ODSP and details about the planned cut to the work-related benefit. The opposition was NOT happy. Here's hoping his opinion translates into positive action.. like a raise.
Oh yeah, I was asked how much of a raise I'd recommend. I pointed to the $100 named in the Social Assistance Review and what some other lobby groups have named. I made it clear that more is necessary, but a raise of $100 would be a very good start.
Text of the submission
Hello my name is Louise. I recently moved to Toronto from Kingston. I am here today to represent the ODSP Action Coalition.
First of all, I’d like to thank the Pre-Budget Standing Committee for accepting this submission from the ODSP Action Coalition. I’ll be speaking on behalf of the ODSP Action Coalition plus, to better illustrate our position, weave in some lived experience to better illustrate the importance of these requests.
The ODSP Action Coalition is a network of disability service providers, community agencies, community legal clinics and recipients of the Ontario Disability Support Program. Our mandate is to advocate for improvements to the income and employment supports available to people who are disabled and must rely on support from ODSP.
I am a person who has been disabled all my life and, despite trying to get a job for most of it, have been unsuccessful and been forced to rely on the provincial government's disability pension. I first started receiving the Family Benefits Allowance, the precursor to ODSP, in 1988. As such, I am uniquely positioned to clearly name the Coalition's requests and then illustrate their reasons for asking, by sharing a piece of my story.
The ODSP Action Coalition has two main requests for this budget:
To illustrate let me share a piece of lived experience: In 1988, when I first started receiving government disability assistance, I could afford to buy:
The Metro pass swallows up 20% of the monthly $619 living allowance I get from ODSP.
In Kingston the specialized transit fare swallowed up 36%, but that was a unique situation.
The Metro Pass is a priority because it’s the only way I can get to things I can afford. My area is gentrified. This means I can’t afford to buy eggs for $1.30 more than I pay at stores like No Frills, Milk that costs $2.80 more than in the cheaper stores, fruits and vegetables that aren't organic and therefore cost too much in my neighbourhood, etc. I also need the transportation to get to the warmer free swimming pool at the Mary McCormick Community Centre so I can get the much needed exercise to stay healthy and reduce pain. I need transit to get to medical appointments, stores, or even to the Library where I can be exposed to mentally stimulating things so I can stay spiritually, mentally, and emotionally well. Being busy also helps one cope with constant pain from disabling issues. It's undeniable, getting access to affordable public transportation is vital. It even opens the door to join in ‘community' with other like-minded individuals.
Incidentally, the variable costs of public transit, shelter, and food is huge when one stops to think that ODSP is delivered using a one-size-fits-all lens to recipients even though the cost-of-living varies greatly between communities throughout the province. The attached Income Adequacy document will help to illustrate the impact of these differences.
Work-Related Benefit: The ODSP Action Coalition and I both urge that this fund NOT BE CUT.
The Coalition created a survey and has circulated it to its members. The results have provided overwhelming proof that many people with disabilities who are able to work, depend on the $100/mth work related benefit. It helps to cover the added expenses, which are often higher because of the costs associated with being disabled. The added costs can include things like,
Under the proposed new rules for the work-related benefit, several benefits will be rolled into one, one-time only, benefit. To qualify for this my caseworker advised that it would be easier to access it if I enrolled in the Employment Supports program.
I told her I was interested in applying for the program so I can at least get some money to cover extra costs if I find another job. My caseworker gave me a list of the Employment Supports Service providers in the Toronto area. There are 21 of them and, on reviewing it, I discovered that if I’m lucky I might qualify for help from 3 or 4 of them only. Many of them are targeted at providing service towards a type of disability I don’t have, and the types of jobs they state they can place a person with, are not the type of jobs I can do. They’re too physical or I lack the skills and/or education to do them. Many of the jobs are entry-level so they wouldn’t pay an adequate enough wage for the disabled to afford to sustain themselves and afford the extra disability related costs. There are very few jobs left in today's market, that are stable and offer coverage for extended health care and/or disability related expenses.
Some of the personal comments I made, like about the cost of the Metro Pass, a haircut, and the cost of food in the grocery store near me vs in another part of Toronto, really had an impact.
Other points that had an impact was the facts about the rate increases for OW vs ODSP and details about the planned cut to the work-related benefit. The opposition was NOT happy. Here's hoping his opinion translates into positive action.. like a raise.
Oh yeah, I was asked how much of a raise I'd recommend. I pointed to the $100 named in the Social Assistance Review and what some other lobby groups have named. I made it clear that more is necessary, but a raise of $100 would be a very good start.
Text of the submission
Hello my name is Louise. I recently moved to Toronto from Kingston. I am here today to represent the ODSP Action Coalition.
First of all, I’d like to thank the Pre-Budget Standing Committee for accepting this submission from the ODSP Action Coalition. I’ll be speaking on behalf of the ODSP Action Coalition plus, to better illustrate our position, weave in some lived experience to better illustrate the importance of these requests.
The ODSP Action Coalition is a network of disability service providers, community agencies, community legal clinics and recipients of the Ontario Disability Support Program. Our mandate is to advocate for improvements to the income and employment supports available to people who are disabled and must rely on support from ODSP.
I am a person who has been disabled all my life and, despite trying to get a job for most of it, have been unsuccessful and been forced to rely on the provincial government's disability pension. I first started receiving the Family Benefits Allowance, the precursor to ODSP, in 1988. As such, I am uniquely positioned to clearly name the Coalition's requests and then illustrate their reasons for asking, by sharing a piece of my story.
The ODSP Action Coalition has two main requests for this budget:
- To provide an immediate significant increase to ODSP income support and,
- To reverse the cut to the Work Related Benefit until adequate levels of income support are provided.
- Nutritious food,
- Shelter,
- Transportation,
- Basic needs, and
- Day-to-day costs, including those related to being disabled.
To illustrate let me share a piece of lived experience: In 1988, when I first started receiving government disability assistance, I could afford to buy:
- Enough food to eat a healthy and balanced diet,
- A bus pass,
- A subsidized membership at the YMCA for exercise and socialization,
- Suitable clothing for casual wear, work wear, and warmth,
- Housewares, furniture (2nd hand), and other basic household essentials
- A haircut,
- A telephone service and,
- Cable TV.
- Rely on subsidized frozen Meals-on-Wheels dinners,
- Feel thankful for the free Community Pools in Toronto so I can get exercise.
- Other cities don’t have this. I certainly had no opportunity to exercise in Kingston, so my health suffered and I was more costly to the health-care system.
- I share this difference because ODSP is a province wide program and it is important to know that opportunities to survive and stay healthy vary from city to city and community to community.
- Buy clothing that can pass as being suitable for ‘business casual’, but can also be used for everyday wear. Gone are the relaxing track pants I used to enjoy being able to wear from time-to-time.
- Cut my own hair (with a brush cut) for 6 months out of a year. In Toronto the cheapest haircut I've found so far is $40. I was lucky and managed to get my hair cut in Kingston when I went up there to see my family doctor a few weeks ago, otherwise I'd be back to the brush cut using my $29 Sunbeam clippers. A haircut only costs $15 there.
- Be thankful that I can get free Internet with my landline service from Primus. This freebie isn’t available province wide. I paid double for the phone and Internet in Kingston.
- Do without a TV.
The Metro pass swallows up 20% of the monthly $619 living allowance I get from ODSP.
In Kingston the specialized transit fare swallowed up 36%, but that was a unique situation.
The Metro Pass is a priority because it’s the only way I can get to things I can afford. My area is gentrified. This means I can’t afford to buy eggs for $1.30 more than I pay at stores like No Frills, Milk that costs $2.80 more than in the cheaper stores, fruits and vegetables that aren't organic and therefore cost too much in my neighbourhood, etc. I also need the transportation to get to the warmer free swimming pool at the Mary McCormick Community Centre so I can get the much needed exercise to stay healthy and reduce pain. I need transit to get to medical appointments, stores, or even to the Library where I can be exposed to mentally stimulating things so I can stay spiritually, mentally, and emotionally well. Being busy also helps one cope with constant pain from disabling issues. It's undeniable, getting access to affordable public transportation is vital. It even opens the door to join in ‘community' with other like-minded individuals.
Incidentally, the variable costs of public transit, shelter, and food is huge when one stops to think that ODSP is delivered using a one-size-fits-all lens to recipients even though the cost-of-living varies greatly between communities throughout the province. The attached Income Adequacy document will help to illustrate the impact of these differences.
Work-Related Benefit: The ODSP Action Coalition and I both urge that this fund NOT BE CUT.
The Coalition created a survey and has circulated it to its members. The results have provided overwhelming proof that many people with disabilities who are able to work, depend on the $100/mth work related benefit. It helps to cover the added expenses, which are often higher because of the costs associated with being disabled. The added costs can include things like,
- Public transportation,
- Suitable clothing required by the workplace
- Meals out, (in the Call Centre I was working full time and off ODSP so my wages matched my co-workers. Even though my bus cost more, I was better able to afford to eat out at work-related special events. When I was working part-time I took a bagged lunch and bought a coffee so I could join the adults I was teaching, community radio programming skills to, for lunch. Sometimes I bowed to humility and the feeling of being ashamed at my level of poverty, and accepted the offer of a student, to buy my lunch.
- Transit to get to work, as illustrated above, among other things.
Under the proposed new rules for the work-related benefit, several benefits will be rolled into one, one-time only, benefit. To qualify for this my caseworker advised that it would be easier to access it if I enrolled in the Employment Supports program.
I told her I was interested in applying for the program so I can at least get some money to cover extra costs if I find another job. My caseworker gave me a list of the Employment Supports Service providers in the Toronto area. There are 21 of them and, on reviewing it, I discovered that if I’m lucky I might qualify for help from 3 or 4 of them only. Many of them are targeted at providing service towards a type of disability I don’t have, and the types of jobs they state they can place a person with, are not the type of jobs I can do. They’re too physical or I lack the skills and/or education to do them. Many of the jobs are entry-level so they wouldn’t pay an adequate enough wage for the disabled to afford to sustain themselves and afford the extra disability related costs. There are very few jobs left in today's market, that are stable and offer coverage for extended health care and/or disability related expenses.
In my experience I have NEVER been able to get a job using Employment Supports. In fact, in one case when I had a full-time job and needed help to overcome some new workplace barriers which were impeding my ability to keep my job, ODSP provided me with an Employment Supports specialist even though I was fully off income support by then. Their logic was, it was better to help a person with a disability keep their job than to let the barrier cause a person to lose it.
Well, my employment supports specialist didn't understand the nuances and impacts of the new barrier, so she said inappropriate things to the employer about my level of ability and her incorrect advice ultimately led to the loss of the job I’d successfully held for 18 months. It broke my heart to lose the job and use rapid reinstatement to go back onto ODSP.
These examples illustrate that it is unrealistic and problematic to suggest that people with disabilities can work to make up for their slowly eroding income. It is incorrect to assume, when finding Employment Support workers, that the disabled are only capable of doing the types of entry-level jobs named on the employment supports list I'd just received.
Although this deputation is based on my story, I can assure you that my story mirrors, to varying degrees, the challenges the disabled are facing with income adequacy and the proposed changes (cut) to the work-related benefit province-wide.
To get on ODSP in the first place, there are strict screening tests that show how the disability renders us unable to work and/or earn enough income to fully sustain ourselves.
It is therefore, in my opinion and that of the Coalition, unconscionable that people with disabilities in the province of Ontario are forced to subsist on an ODSP income that has been allowed to drop so far below the poverty line.
ODSP was never intended to be an income of last resort. The proof can be found by reading the preamble to Ontarian’s With Disabilities Act, 2001. It states,
Well, my employment supports specialist didn't understand the nuances and impacts of the new barrier, so she said inappropriate things to the employer about my level of ability and her incorrect advice ultimately led to the loss of the job I’d successfully held for 18 months. It broke my heart to lose the job and use rapid reinstatement to go back onto ODSP.
These examples illustrate that it is unrealistic and problematic to suggest that people with disabilities can work to make up for their slowly eroding income. It is incorrect to assume, when finding Employment Support workers, that the disabled are only capable of doing the types of entry-level jobs named on the employment supports list I'd just received.
Although this deputation is based on my story, I can assure you that my story mirrors, to varying degrees, the challenges the disabled are facing with income adequacy and the proposed changes (cut) to the work-related benefit province-wide.
To get on ODSP in the first place, there are strict screening tests that show how the disability renders us unable to work and/or earn enough income to fully sustain ourselves.
It is therefore, in my opinion and that of the Coalition, unconscionable that people with disabilities in the province of Ontario are forced to subsist on an ODSP income that has been allowed to drop so far below the poverty line.
ODSP was never intended to be an income of last resort. The proof can be found by reading the preamble to Ontarian’s With Disabilities Act, 2001. It states,
“The Ontario Disability Support Program Act, 1997 provides a separate income and employment support program for eligible persons with disabilities. It removed persons with disabilities from the welfare system and provides them with assistance that recognizes their unique needs.”Ontario has failed miserably in living up to this Act and the promises that were made to the people who are disabled. The disabled, for reasons they can’t control, are unable to work.
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_01o32_e.htm
Please, the ODSP Action Coalition and I urge you, recommend that the 2015 budget include:
Co-secretary ODSP Action Coalition.
- A substantial raise to the ODSP rate,
- A reversal to the cut to the Work-Related Benefit.
Co-secretary ODSP Action Coalition.
The typed version was shared with them after it was presented. A link to the ODSP Action Coalition's paper on Adequacy was also included.
Please read my other Blogs:
Transportation: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health Care: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com
Please read my other Blogs:
Transportation: http://wheelchairdemon-transit.blogspot.com
Health Care: http://wheelchairdemon-health.blogspot.com
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