PCAP invites you to join us at next week’s City Council meeting (Monday, July 7 @ 6:30pm, City Hall, 500 George St. N.). If you have been denied dentures benefits due to restrictive city policy, or if you have supported PCAP’s “Fair Access to Dentures Campaign” over the past 6 months, please show your support for a promising report to be voted on by Council.
The central aim of the report is to expand discretionary benefits for people trying to live on the meagre provincial social assistance incomes (OW and ODSP). While PCAP continues to press for a 40% increase in welfare rates across Ontario, we approve of the direction of the report as an interim measure.
PCAP appreciates the work of the Mayor’s Action Committee on Poverty Reduction in moving these demands forward to Council, and are glad to see a positive response to reasonable demands being made by PCAP and many others in the community.
In December 2007, PCAP launched its “Fair Access to Dentures Campaign”. The campaign was a response to the increasingly high volume of calls we got from people on OW/ODSP who had been denied access to dentures benefits. Upon investigation, we found a two-tiered municipal policy. Currently, if you cannot work due to disabilities that render you unemployable, you cannot receive dentures benefits (even if you need them to relieve pain or for medical reasons). This policy has forced people to make a hard choice – feed the kids, pay the rent or buy new teeth.
Over the past 6 months PCAP has continued to lobby City Council to change this municipal policy. Our campaign is part of a broader effort by organizations and individuals in the city and across the province who recognize that welfare rates are set at dangerous subpoverty levels and that proactive measures need to be taken to increase benefits at all levels of government.
We are encouraged to see that City Council is listening. The report passed through the Committee of the Whole last week, gaining the approval of Councillors in attendance. We expect no less at the vote in Council next week.
Most importantly, the report calls for a change in the guiding principles for municipal policy on discretionary benefits. Specifically, it recommends eliminating the former two-tiered policy in favour of a policy that allows access to benefits “to relieve pain or for medical or therapeutic purposes or to increase employability.” If this motion is passed, dentures benefits will be available for all OW and ODSP recipients beginning October 1, 2008.
While we are encouraged by this direction in Council, PCAP wants clarification on some questions to ensure that full access to dentures is secured.
1. We want to ensure that those who applied under the old policy (and were denied access) will be eligible to re-apply without penalty immediately on October 1.
2. We are concerned about securing ongoing funding for the newly enhanced benefits. The funds being directed to Discretionary Benefits are to come from money saved by the City due to the restructuring of social assistance in 2008. While we applaud the City for keeping these funds directed at social assistance for 2008, this will need to be secured in the 2009 budget as well. These enhanced benefits are a weak gain if funding is only guaranteed for one year.
3. We are seeking a standard application form for all discretionary benefits. The problem of accessibility, accountability, transparency and tracking has been widely acknowledged in the community (and was much discussed at the October 22/07 public forum on discretionary benefits policy reform). The idea of a standard application form was put forth as a reasonable and easily achieved solution, yet is absent from the report.
4. We have questions about the decision to split the $1500 entitlement into two separate claims ($750 for lower and $750 for upper dentures work). This will impose an unworkable limit on those who require more expensive work on either upper or lower, and limits choices.
Please join us at City Council on Monday to support PCAP’s work in further strengthening the report and to make sure these gains are secured by a positive vote.
Fight to Win!
Raise the Rates!
PCAP
Join us at 6:00 p.m. for the weekly Food Not Bombs dinner at City Hall - Free, delicious, and vegetarian!
For more information on the 'Fair Access to Dentures Campaign' please click HERE
To view the City Council Meeting Agenda, please click HERE (with attention to item 4 d.)
To view the social services report (Ontario Works Discretionary Benefits Review) being considered by Council please click HERE (with attention to item 14):
About Us
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- PCAP is a direct action anti-poverty group made up of poor people and their allies. We believe in the power of people to organize themselves. PCAP mounts social justice campaigns against regressive government policies that affect poor, homeless and working communities. We also provide free advocacy for individuals and families. Please note there is a change of office hours and location. We are hosting outreach meetings within Peterborough County. FIGHT to Win! Email: pcap@riseup.net;