- Getting as much as you can from OW/ODSP
- The OCF's Raise the Rates Campaign
WHAT IS THIS?
This is a pamphlet for welfare (Ontario Works) and disability (Ontario Disability Support Program) recipients by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. It includes information about how to get every extra dollar possible onto your cheque and what OCAP can do to defend you if OW or ODSP is messing you around.
WHAT DOES OCAP THINK OF OW AND ODSP?
First off, the welfare system does not exist to meet people's needs. The welfare system exists because poor people fought decades ago for the government to provide them with the means to live when the greater economy couldn't. This is the same reason we need welfare today and why OCAP fights for decent benefits and treatment for those on the rolls. This society doesn't provide for everybody, and the fact that there are 700,000+ people on OW and ODSP in Ontario makes that clear.
OW keeps recipients barely surviving, without providing nearly enough to pay rent or buy food. You're forced to apply for the worst jobs that exist, take insult and humiliation from your worker, and allow your most personal details to be put on the government's computers. To top it off, when you try to make some money on the side or find other sources of income, you're punished with deductions, getting cut-off, and having the cops investigate you for fraud. What does OCAP think of Ontario Works? We think it's exploitation at its worst.
To get on ODSP, you have to jump through even greater hoops. Virtually everyone who applies is denied assistance and has to try to win on appeal. The system does everything it can to prevent people with disabilities from receiving an income they can live on and forces disabled people to find lawyers and representatives to prove the most obvious facts about their bodies and health. What does OCAP think of the Ontario Disability Support Program? We think it stinks of able-ism and cruelty.
HOW DO WE FIGHT FOR INDIVIDUALS?
OCAP believes that the welfare system and those whose who run it have to be confronted with the demands of poor people who must access the system in order to survive. We organize to win every right and payment we can force from the system. We back-up and represent anyone who is denied, cut-off, or screwed around for benefits until we win.
The main part of this pamphlet talks about the many ways you can get screwed by OW and ODSP and OCAP has seen and fought them all. When someone contacts us about a grievance, we immediately write a letter to the supervisor at their office demanding justice in their situation. We ask for a resolution within 7 days. If this resolution doesn't come, we take a group of our members to the office in question and confront the supervisor directly with around 30 people. If this doesn't get the result we're looking for, we'll go back again. Sometimes supervisors are such assholes that we have to occupy a Ministry building or another similar target. We will use this form of collective action until they're so sick of dealing with us and can't sustain any more disruption that they give in.
GETTING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN FROM OW AND ODSP
To get what you can out of a system designed to hold back all but the barest minimum of assistance, you have to at least know what money is available. Your welfare worker often won't even tell you about the benefits you're legally entitled to. Many people never see the money they should get just because they don't know it's there. Below is information on what to ask for and how to get it.
Documents
Your worker will demand detailed documentation of your finances and personal life, such as bank statements, receipts, and rent statements. If you can't provide the documents they want, they may try to refuse you assistance. If this happens to you, contact OCAP. If your worker wants to see a document that costs money to get, welfare has to pay for it. Be sure to tell your worker that you can't afford the cost of the document they're asking for, and ask them to either pay for it or accept a different document in its place.
Basic Needs
Anyone on welfare is entitled to a basic monthly cheque, the amount of which depends on the size of your immediate family. You're entitled to this basic needs allowance whether you pay rent, own a home, live in a squat or lean-to, or live on the street. If you live in a hostel you may not get a basic needs cheque, but you're entitled to a smaller allowance, called a personal needs allowance (PNA), which you'll sometimes get through welfare and sometimes through the hostel administration.
Housing
You're entitled to a monthly rent allowance, which has a maximum that depends on the size of your family. If you don't pay rent, or your rent is less than the maximum, you can use the extra to pay for utilities, fuel, mortgage payments, or other home expenses. So, you should make sure you let your worker know about all your rent, utility, and other costs, to make sure that you get the full amount you're entitled to.
Your monthly rent allowance can also be used to pay for home repairs, if your rent and utilities are less than the maximum payment. You should explain why the repairs are necessary for your health or well-being, or if you need to make your home accessible because of a medical condition. You should also keep the receipts from the repairs to give to your worker.
Community Start-Up
This payment is one of the best to get because it's a lot of money. Your worker may try to tell you that start-up is only available if you're moving, but it's actually supposed to help with any change in your life. This can include costs such as: furnishing your home; moving to a different home; getting off the street; helping you with back payments on rent; avoiding eviction; having a new child; deposits for first- and last-month's rent or for hydro and fuel; furniture; breaking up with a partner who owns the furnishings in your home; etc.
The important thing is to explain to your worker that your life circumstances have changed. Start-up is only available once every 12 months, although you can sometimes get it after 10 months or so if you push for it. It has a maximum of $1500 if you have kids or other dependents or $799 if you're by yourself. You should make a complete list of the costs of everything you need. Your worker may not accept everything on your list, so it makes sense to list more than the maximum. They may sometimes also require that you get quotes for the amounts you list.
If you live in a squat, shack, lean-to, tent, or other irregular housing, the monthly rent allowance should pay for repairs and furnishings for it. As far as we know, no one has ever tried to apply for this benefit, but according to welfare regulations you are entitled to it. If you try to apply for this and don't get it, contact OCAP.
Overpayments
If you receive more money than welfare thinks you deserve, you may have money deducted from your monthly cheque to pay for the "overpayment." If you got the extra money because the welfare office made a mistake, you shouldn't have to pay it back - if they try to charge you for it, contact OCAP. If you got the money for some other reason (for example, you forgot to tell welfare when you got a job), you'll have to pay it back but the amount of the payments can vary. They'll try to stick you by taking 8% of your cheque until it's paid back, but OCAP can fight to get it to as low as 2%. At that rate, it can take welfare years to get their money back!
If your welfare is reduced or cut off or you're charged with an overpayment, you'll get a computer-generated notice that doesn't tell you why it happened. Force your worker to give you all the information for why they're charging. This will help you to fight it.
Emergency Assistance
If you're not yet on welfare, you're entitled to emergency assistance if your health is in danger. That means that you can get 2 weeks of assistance without having to complete an application or meet all the usual requirements. If welfare tries to make you get documentation or otherwise delays your application for emergency assistance, contact OCAP.
Welfare has an emergency after-hours phone line open 6:00 - 9:30 on weekdays and 1:00 - 7:00 on weekends and holidays. The number is 416-392-8600.
There are sometimes food vouchers available at welfare offices that can be used for meals at centers and shelters. These may not always be available, but it's worth checking.
Youth
If you're 16 or 17 years old, you can get welfare if you can't live at home: like if your parents can't support you, won't support you, or are abusive. Although your worker will normally expect you to be in school or training, you can get welfare without being in school if you have a medical condition that prevents it, you have a child and no child care is available, or you have to wait until September to start classes.
If your parents have abused you or are a threat to your safety, your worker isn't allowed to contact them in any way. Make sure to clearly tell your worker that your parents are a threat to you if you don't want them contacted. You may need a medical or councillor's note to verify this.
Parents
If you're a parent on welfare, OW and ODSP are already stealing your money. As a parent, you receive a Child Tax Benefit from the feds - but welfare takes an equal amount off your cheque, so you don't get a cent of it. That means that parents on welfare are denied the basic assistance given to other parents to help raise their kids. Another way the poor are squeezed in Ontario.
City Hall pretends that its Child Tax Benefit scam helps poor parents by using part of the money to create the "shelter fund". The shelter fund is a payment you can get to keep from being evicted from your home. It's only available if you're a parent and you've used up your community start-up or it isn't enough to keep you from being evicted. Of course, if you got to keep your Child Tax Benefit you might not be facing eviction in the first place. But the shelter fund is a way to get a small part of it back, anyway.
As a parent, some of your welfare rates and benefits are higher. You're also entitled to a few other benefits. They all have maximums but you can stretch the limit. These benefits help pay for dental and eye care, winter clothing, and school supplies and clothing for your children. Winter clothing and school supplies are only available once a year. You usually get the money for winter clothing in November, but you can get it at any time if your children's health is in danger. You're also entitled to money for extra food if you're pregnant or have recently had a baby.
We've seen many workers lie about how much welfare will actually provide for your kids and babies. If you think they're holding back, talk to someone at OCAP.
Working and Volunteering
The whole welfare system is set up to force people into finding whatever job they can, no matter how low-paying, boring, and degrading it may be. Your welfare worker will expect you to be grateful for any chance to make any sort of wage. Of course, given how many working people live below the poverty line, getting a job is hardly a magic solution for living a decent life. The welfare system doesn't want you to get a job for your own sake - it wants you to do the work that no one else is willing to do, to keep the business profits rolling in. Usually your worker will demand that you be actively looking for work while you're on welfare. You can avoid this if there's a reason you can't work, for example if you have young children or you're sick or you're volunteering.
Welfare will give you some benefits if you look for work or volunteer. The first month you're looking, you're entitled to an extra $250. You also get $100 a month after that if you're volunteering or working a set number of hours. This money is supposed to be used to buy a TTC MetroPass, but they give it to you in cash. If you're sick or disabled, you can do fewer hours to get the $100; the amount will be set based on how much welfare thinks you're able to work, but it's usually around 10 hours/week.
Welfare expects you to be grateful to be employed, no matter how awful your job is. So if you quit or get laid off or fired, your worker may tell you that you can't get assistance for the next 3 months. But that's not exactly true. The regulations say that you're allowed to quit your job without getting cut off welfare if you have a "reasonable reason." That means, for example, that you can quit if your workplace is unsafe or unhealthy, you're being harassed in any way, you have to take care of your children, or you were offered another job. You also shouldn't be cut off welfare if you were fired because you couldn't do the job, or if you were laid off. Welfare will often try to cut you off anyway, to punish you for not accepting whatever your boss dictates. If this happens to you, contact OCAP.
Employment Start-Up
If you're looking for work, welfare has to help you with job training and searching. In addition, you're entitled to money for costs associated with getting a job, starting training, starting a volunteer position, becoming self-employed, or starting other job-related activities. This is called "employment start-up." You should make a list of the things you need to start work, such as work clothes, safety equipment, tools, licensing fees, and transportation costs.
You're also entitled to assistance if you have a job or volunteer position that involves ongoing costs. You can get this money on a monthly basis, or as an advance.
Medical Costs
If a physical or mental health problem limits your ability to work, look after yourself, or live in your community, you can apply for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). If you're on ODSP you get all the same benefits as welfare, but your monthly assistance is higher. You also aren't forced to do job searches and job training.
If you have a disability but your income is too high to qualify for ODSP monthly assistance, you may still be entitled to assistance for drug and other medical costs.
The government's made getting on ODSP hard. You'll need a lot of reports from doctors and specialists, and the regulations are set up to exclude as many people as possible. If you're having trouble getting on ODSP, contact OCAP. If you're turned down for ODSP but you have health problems, you can still be exempted from doing job searches and work and volunteer placements for welfare. You'll need to get your doctor to fill out a form every 6 months.
Whether you're on welfare or on ODSP, you're entitled to money for medical expenses. This includes drugs, diabetic supplies, transportation to medical appointments, guide dog costs, special diets, batteries and repairs for wheelchairs, etc. If you have medical needs that welfare is refusing to cover, contact OCAP. If you need glasses, welfare has to cover the cost, but you'll need a prescription that's less than 6 months old. Ontario health care only covers eye exams every 2 years, so if you get a prescription, you should be sure to get glasses through welfare within 6 months – otherwise you won't be able to get them until your next prescription 2 years later.
Welfare covers the cost of personal support devices such as crutches and wheelchairs, but your worker may not tell you everything you need to know. You'll need a letter from a specialist - not a general practice doctor - and you'll need 2 different estimates of the cost of the device (for example, from 2 different drugstores). The waiting period can also be extremely long so tell your worker you can't get by without the device. OCAP has been able to speed up the process in getting medical devices, so talk to us if you need them.
Other Benefits
- If you're over 65, you're entitled to an extra $30/month.
- Welfare covers funeral and burial costs up to $2250.
- You're entitled to moving expenses if you need to move, for example if your current home is a danger to your health or safety or the rent is too high. You should explain to your worker that the move is necessary, and why you are unable to keep living in your current home.
- If you're not from the city where you live now, you're entitled to money to cover the cost of moving home to your city, province, or country of origin. You'll only receive this if your worker decides that it's in your best interests, so tell them how moving home is important for your life.
- If you're in jail, your welfare will be reduced or cut off, but you shouldn't have to re-apply for ODSP when you get out. ODSP recipients used to be cut off when they went to jail, and lost time and money waiting for new applications. If this happened to you, contact OCAP. We can get you back pay for the ODSP assistance you should have received after getting out of jail.
- You can get an extra $50/month by telling your worker that you have a special diet.
RAISE THE RATES CAMPAIGN
If you're on OW or ODSP today, you know that the rates are shit and that they're not enough to live on. Over the next year, OCAP and our allies across Ontario will be organizing in a major way to get the rates raised.
We're demanding:
1. A 40% raise in welfare rates.
2. A raise in disability rates to match cost-of-living increases.
The campaign is being organized office-by-office and community-by-community to include as many people as possible.
Public Meetings across the city and Province will spread the word that welfare and disability recipients are fighting back.
Welfare, disability, and other government offices will be occupied.
Actions will be conducted to collect massive paybacks for what we don't have: opening up subway stations for free use, entering supermarkets in large groups to take what we can no longer afford, making sure we have decent clothes for our families, and refusing to start each month writing rent cheques that leave us with nothing.
We're in this together, so let's act like it. Call OCAP to find out what is being organized in your area and how you can get involved.
ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY
Phone 416-925-6939
Website www.ocap.ca
E-mail ocap@tao.ca
Address 10 Britain St. (South of Queen St., West of Sherbourne)
