PCAP Shuts Down Eviction Machine

March 20th, 2006

Forty people shut down the eviction machine known as the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal this morning at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources building in Peterborough. The Tribunal closed for the day and no evictions could be processed. This action was taken in support of the ongoing campaign to raise social assistance rates, to prevent evictions, and to change the so-called Tenant Protection Act so that it respects the rights of tenants. Housing Tribunals have also been shut down in Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. Tribunal disruptions also happened in Guelph and other actions have taken place in Belleville and Sudbury.

The Housing Tribunal serves as the Ontario government’s eviction machine. In 2005, 91% of all applications to the Housing Tribunal come from landlords and 95% of those were eviction related. 64,864 tenants were tossed out of their homes in 2005, an increase of 8.7% over the previous year. This number will continue to increase now that many welfare recipients have had their incomes drastically cut. Mike Harris created the Housing Tribunal when he was the Premier to make it that much easier to throw families out on the street because they can’t afford skyrocketing rents. At the same time, the Tories also cancelled rent control and cut welfare by 21.6% - causing a massive increase in the number of people evicted each year.

The Liberals were eager to bemoan the plight of the poor when they were in opposition, but since coming to power, they have made Harris proud. They betrayed their promise to bring back rent control. They back-peddled on their pledge to meaningfully raise welfare and disability rates and to end the clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement. Their latest insult has been to slash the special diet supplement, which enabled OW and ODSP recipients to receive an extra $250/month for medically prescribed diets.

Over the last year, the Ontario Common Front has used this policy to access 40 million more dollars for thousands of poor people across the province. In conjunction with inflation, recipients’ spending power has decreased by 40% since the 1995 Harris cuts. Thousands of recipients were receiving some relief through the Special Diet Allowance until Minister Pupatello and the Liberal government reacted by cutting the program. Over the next few months, virtually everyone will lose the Special Diet, including thousands of children and people with major health problems. The restructuring eliminated such items as breastfeeding supplements and malnutrition, and reduced certain allowances, for example, a person with liver disease now receives a measly $10.

Members of the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty, Toronto’s Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Belleville’s Tenant Action Group, The Kingston Coalition Against Poverty and the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Collective were are all present at the Tribunal. No one was arrested after employees called police. Not surprisingly, at least 6 police cars, the canine unit and upwards of 15 officers were quickly on site, ready to defend the rights of the rich and keep the eviction machine rolling.

PCAP, in cooperation with anti-poverty groups across the province, will continue to fight the McGuinty government until the rates are raised and legislation is changed to reflect the right of all Ontarians to safe and affordable housing, food security, and a livable income. We won’t allow the Harris Legacy to continue with business as usual while poor people are forced to choose between paying for rent or food.

PCAP puts MPP Jeff Leal on Notice: Raise the Rates NOW

Submitted by pcap on 25 February, 2006 - 04:06. PCAP News | Raise the Rates

On Friday, February 17th, a delegation from PCAP went to Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament Jeff Leal's office and put him on notice (see letter to Leal at end of this article).

The dozen people from the delegation, including people being cut off of the special diet, advocates, Trent students and a member of OCAP in Toronto put Jeff Leal on notice: unless he make a public statement endorsing a 40% increase in social assistance rates to restore them to pre-Harris cuts levels, including an increase in cost of living, we will step up our campaign of protest and direct action.

As he refused to make such a statement, we will be carrying out more actions in the next month to put the pressure on the Liberal government to give people on OW/ODSP enough money to live in dignity.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Go to PCAP rallies and actions.

Come to to our General Meetings, the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 6 PM at Grassroots Cafe (Hunter and Aylmer). Or, email us back and let us know you want to help.

Help support PCAP financially. Fighting the good fight isn't free, especially if we want to send people to out of town actions. You can drop off cheques in the name of the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty at
the Credit Union, next to the Price Chopper on Brock Street. Or mail them to PCAP, #17-393 Water St., Peterborough, ON, K9H 3L7

Spread the word or write letters to the editor. The more people know about what's going on, the better.

Write letters to the MPP. He probably won't care, but it's worth a shot and only takes a few minutes anyways. Tell him you want social assistance rates
raised 40% and an end to the special diet reinstated. Here's his contact info:

Constituency Office
236 King Street,
Peterborough, ON,
K9J 7L8
(705) 742-3777
Fax: (705) 742-1822

Email: jleal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

********

Dear Mr.Leal,

We stopped by your office to demand a 40% increase to social assistance rates, and a restoration of the Special Diet Supplement.

People living on social assistance haven’t seen a substantial increase in their payments since Mike Harris slashed their rates 21.6%. The 3% increase
offered by your government was not even close to making up for this. Including the cost of living increase, social assistance rates would have to
be raised 40% to make up for the losses incurred during the Harris years.

By not reversing Harris’ anti-social and destructive cuts, you are implicitly aligning yourself with his poor-bashing ideology. You were voted in because people were sick of the so-called Common Sense Revolution. Instead of improving the lot of your low-income constituents, you are hypocritically perpetuating their poverty.

Not only did your government not increase social rates in any meaningful way, but you actually restricted access to the Special Diet Supplement. That
existed to give people on welfare up to $250 per month on top of their regular payments if it was deemed medically necessary. Many health care practitioners have decided that poverty is a medical condition. An open letter entitled “Hunger: A serious issue for OW/ODSP recipidents” signed by almost 100 medical professionals and experts claimed that they “recognize
that current Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program benefit rates are too low for recipients to adequately feed themselves after attending to other basic necessities such as rent and transportation costs.” This letter was also signed by a host of local organizations inlcuding the
Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice, Peterborough Social Planning Council, YWCA Peterborough, Victoria and Haliburton, United Way of Peterborough and District, and PARN - Your Community AIDS Resource Network. If it interests you, the letter can be found at http://ocap.ca/rtr/diet/letter.

Nevertheless, your government decided that hunger isn’t that big a deal and restricted access to the special diet. Now, people who have liver failure are entitled to an extra $10 per month. People who are just plain old hungry are out of luck.

We’re sick and tired of waiting for your government to move. We need 40%, we need the special diet supplement, and we want you to publicly state in
the legislature that you are in support of this.

Sincerely,

Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty

40% NOW Leal

On Friday, February 17th, a delegation from PCAP went to Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament Jeff Leal's office and put him on notice (see letter to Leal at end of this article).

The dozen people from the delegation, including people being cut off of the special diet, advocates, Trent students and a member of OCAP in Toronto put Jeff Leal on notice: unless he make a public statement endorsing a 40% increase in social assistance rates to restore them to pre-Harris cuts levels, including an increase in cost of living, we will step up our campaign of protest and direct action.

As he refused to make such a statement, we will be carrying out more actions in the next month to put the pressure on the Liberal government to give people on OW/ODSP enough money to live in dignity.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

-Go to PCAP rallies and actions.

-Come to to our General Meetings, the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 6 PM at Grassroots Cafe (Hunter and Aylmer). Or, email us back and let us know you want to help.

-Help support PCAP financially. Fighting the good fight isn't free, especially if we want to send people to out of town actions. You can drop off cheques in the name of the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty at the Credit Union, next to the Price Chopper on Brock Street. Or mail them to PCAP, #17-393 Water St., Peterborough, ON, K9H 3L7

-Spread the word or write letters to the editor. The more people know about what's going on, the better.

-Write letters to the MPP. He probably won't care, but it's worth a shot and only takes a few minutes anyways. Tell him you want social assistance rates raised 40% and an end to the special diet reinstated. Here's his contact info:

Constituency Office
236 King Street,
Peterborough, ON,
K9J 7L8
(705) 742-3777
Fax: (705) 742-1822

Email: jleal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

********

Dear Mr.Leal,

We stopped by your office to demand a 40% increase to social assistance rates, and a restoration of the Special Diet Supplement.

People living on social assistance haven’t seen a substantial increase in their payments since Mike Harris slashed their rates 21.6%. The 3% increase
offered by your government was not even close to making up for this. Including the cost of living increase, social assistance rates would have to
be raised 40% to make up for the losses incurred during the Harris years.

By not reversing Harris’ anti-social and destructive cuts, you are implicitly aligning yourself with his poor-bashing ideology. You were voted in because people were sick of the so-called Common Sense Revolution. Instead of improving the lot of your low-income constituents, you are hypocritically perpetuating their poverty.

Not only did your government not increase social rates in any meaningful way, but you actually restricted access to the Special Diet Supplement. That
existed to give people on welfare up to $250 per month on top of their regular payments if it was deemed medically necessary. Many health care practitioners have decided that poverty is a medical condition. An open letter entitled “Hunger: A serious issue for OW/ODSP recipidents” signed by almost 100 medical professionals and experts claimed that they “recognize
that current Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program benefit rates are too low for recipients to adequately feed themselves after attending to other basic necessities such as rent and transportation costs.” This letter was also signed by a host of local organizations inlcuding the
Ontario Public Interest Research Group, Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice, Peterborough Social Planning Council, YWCA Peterborough, Victoria and Haliburton, United Way of Peterborough and District, and PARN - Your Community AIDS Resource Network. If it interests you, the letter can be found at http://ocap.ca/rtr/diet/letter.

Nevertheless, your government decided that hunger isn’t that big a deal and restricted access to the special diet. Now, people who have liver failure are entitled to an extra $10 per month. People who are just plain old hungry are out of luck.

We’re sick and tired of waiting for your government to move. We need 40%, we need the special diet supplement, and we want you to publicly state in
the legislature that you are in support of this.

Sincerely,

Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty

Special Diet Slashed

What happened? For almost a year, OCAP has been getting people onto the previously little-known special diet supplement, getting up to $250 more per person a month. Since that time, OCAP held 25 community clinics with sympathetic medical practitioners who signed about 5000 people up for the special diet supplement, massively increasing peoples’ monthly incomes. In Toronto alone, over 10 000 more people on welfare started getting the special diet, before that only 2000 people were getting this money. On November 4, the Liberal Government quietly cut the special diet in response to having so many poor people access these desperately needed funds.

How has the Special Diet been changed? Before the changes, people could get up to $250 per person a month if a medical practitioner said that they needed special diets for medical conditions. This allowed medical practitioners to prescribe special diets on the basis that people are not getting enough money to eat properly. Now the government has changed the law so that it is impossible to prescribe special diets on this basis.

Everyone who is getting the special diet right now will be CUT OFF within the next few months. Even if your medical practitioner prescribed PERMANENT special diets. You will be given a new special diet form that makes it VERY DIFFICULT to get special diet money.

What’s wrong with the new special diet forms?

* They force you to disclose your medical conditions, including HIV/AIDS, before they could not legally force you to provide this information
* They have replaced the list of special diets with specific medical conditions that are each worth a particular amount of money. If you don’t have any of these conditions (diabetes, cancer etc) you can not get special diet money
* The money you can qualify for is a sick joke: for example, if you have liver disease you get $10/month, cardiovascular disease, $10/month, even people with cancer or HIV/AIDS only qualify for $75 - $240 month depending on how much weight they’ve lost

What should I do when I get the new Special Diet Forms? If you are getting the special diet right now, within the next few months you will be given the new Special Diet forms. You are supposed to be given 90 days to fill them out. If you can’t get them filled out (ie. you don’t have a particular disease, or allergy listed), you will be cut off the special diet after 90 days. WAIT UNTIL NEAR THE END OF THE 90 DAY PERIOD TO GET THE NEW FORMS FILLED OUT BECAUSE YOU WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY EITHER GET LESS MONEY OR NO MONEY AT ALL ONCE YOU SUBMIT THEM.

OCAP TAKES ACTION AGAINST GOVERNMENT CUTS

24 hours after discovering that the Liberal government had quietly slashed the Special Diet, OCAP held a 250 person-strong march to Minister of Community and Social Services, Sandra Pupatello’s, office. People came from as far as Belleville and Kitchener to express their rage at the government for stealing the one tool poor people have to try to eke out some sort of decent living. From mothers from Toronto’s Somali community—who have been the backbone of this struggle—to a couple who scraped gas money together and drove in from north of Parry Sound because they are going to be cut of the special diet, many individuals and communities are mobilizing to fight the Liberals over the right to a decent standard of living.

Demonstrators called Pupatello out for being quoted on CBC Radio only a month ago saying, “I’ll be the first one to stand up and tell you that I don’t believe people can live healthily with the amount that people receive on welfare” and then turning around and slashing the Special Diet. The revised supplement forces people to disclose their medical conditions, including HIV/AIDS, to justify getting any type of special diet. Even those with the most serious diseases will only qualify for paltry sums such as $10/month for liver disease, $10/month for cardiovascular disease and up to $240/month for cancer or HIV---but only if you’ve already lost at least 10% of your body weight.

The time has come to join forces and demand that this government raise the rates—and not by 3%. We demand a 40% raise in welfare and Ontario disability rates. It has been 10 years since Mike Harris slashed welfare by 21.6%. The Liberal government, for all its platitudes, has done nothing but continue his “Common Sense Revolution”. Now they have butchered the one program that was actually allowing poor people to get some of the money they need to survive.

We cannot tell you how many horror stories we have heard from people, including many of our own members, about how impossible it was to get by on what they received before they got the special diet. One story that comes to mind is of strategizing with a 24 year old single mom living in Scarborough and spending $5 more a month on rent than the sum total of her welfare cheque. Because she had already faced eviction due to arrears, her entire cheque was on direct deposit to the landlord every month. After spending half an hour trying to figure out what welfare funds she might access other than the special diet, we concluded that she had exhausted every single available fund. Then we spent another 15 minutes figuring out how to get $2.50 to north Scarborough so she could take TTC down to a special diet clinic. Unfortunately, this example is not an exception. We hear of these types of situations far too often, and with the slashing of the Special Diet people are once again being left without the ability to make ends meet.

Come out November 26th, 2005 bring your friends, bring your family, bring your neighbours.

If you can help us by doing outreach, community organizing, or donating money please let us know right away.

One thing is for sure. This Government won’t give us a penny unless we fight for it. The Special Diet has made a difference in the lives of thousands of people and given some hope to tens of thousands more. Now he’s taken it away and must face the anger of those he has returned to poverty and hunger. We are not planning to just ‘protest’ this cutback but to defeat it. Come out on the 26th and fight for yourself, your family and your community.

Raise the Rates!!!

OCAP Information: How to get Everything you can from Ontario Works and Ontario Disability

While some of the information in this pamphlet may still be useful, it has not been update to reflect changes in law and policy.

Description:

• 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)

People Unite to Raise the Rates

by Amardeep Kaur Gill

A total of nearly 70 people, from several different local activist groups across Peterborough, joined forces for the province-wide campaign to raise the social assistance rates - Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), on Friday October 1st.

The rally opened at the welfare office with a public ‘speak-out’, organized by the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP), where individuals on social assistance brought their voices out to the public on what it is like to survive on the current rates and to demonstrate that the 3% raise recently by the Provincial McGuinty Liberal Government is an ‘insultingly pathetic gesture’ and not enough to meet basic living needs.

For a single person on welfare, the 3% raise by the Liberal Government amounts to a mere $15.60 per month on top of the current Ontario welfare rate of $530. In Peterborough, where an average bachelor’s apartment is $453 per month, a single person on social assistance is left with only $82 to cover utilities, food, clothes, transportation and other basic costs.

“I would like to see Dalton McGuinty to live on $82 a month for all his needs”, stated Sarah Lamble (PCAP Organizer), showing that the people are sick of making choices between rent and food, clothes and transportation and that the people have had enough.

Following the June 11th speak-out at welfare office, the gatherers made their demands again clear that a 40% raise is needed to restore the 21.7% cuts to welfare in 1995 and to compensate for 10 years of inflation and cost of living increases. “Real change, not spare change”, insisted supporters of the Peterborough event.

Recipients of welfare and ODSP emphasized the inadequacy of the current rates to meet basic needs. One person stated the impossibility to eat nutritiously.

After sharing free lunch provided by Grassroots Café and speaking-out, PCAP marched over to the Peterborough Square to join up with Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice, Peterborough ODSP Action Group, and Peterborough Social Planning Council (PSPC) for another demonstration on raising the rates.

The Peterborough Coalition for Social Justice had put on a vivid visual display with a dramatic skit of the disparities and inequalities of the socio-economic system, bringing to light the unacceptable poverty line low-income people and people with disabilities are forced to live in.

Melissa Webster from the Peterborough ODSP Action Group made known her disappointment at the McGuinty government. “The liberals promised change, yet horribly low-income people continue to suffer,” she said.

Following Raging Grannies singing social justice songs and an incredible display of unity at the Square, demonstrators – led by PCAP – took over the streets and marched around downtown for more than half hour. “The people, united, will never be defeated”, chanted supporters of the Peterborough ‘Raise the Rates’ event, blocking traffic and demanding the 40% increase immediately.

Paul Bocking of the Peterborough Coalition Poverty Against Poverty led the way into the office of Liberal MPP, Jeff Leal, to insert the demands. The demands, however, had to be directed to Leal’s office secretary as Leal was not in town and away on business that day. “We are not going to get a change until we get to the streets and fight for it”, stated Bocking. “This is just part of a much bigger grassroots movement for social change. We are tired of being victims. People are angry.”

The Peterborough event was part of a province-wide campaign. Similar actions took place during the week across Ontario to demand change on the anniversary of the provincial liberal government coming into power. Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) grabbed $3,525 worth of food and toiletries from a high-end grocery store and distributed it to low-income people in Toronto. The bill will be presented to McGuinty on Tuesday. Similarity, Youth Collective had shut down the liberal MPP John Milloy’s Office in Kitchener/Waterloo to let him know that the liberal’s agenda of robbing the poor to pay for the lifestyles of the rich would not go on unopposed.

Several Members of PCAP will be having a meeting with local MPP – Jeff Leal on October 22nd to discuss their demands. “Until they give low-income people what they deserve, we are not going to stop fighting. We are here, and we are not going away!”, stated Lamble.

Rally & March to Raise the Rates: Welfare & ODSP

Friday October 1st, 2004
11:00am @ Welfare Office
(in the Charlotte Mews Courtyard)

FREE LUNCH and Public Speak Out March Downtown to the Local Provincial Liberal Office

On the anniversary of their election...
demand that the Liberals raise the rates!

WE WON’T GET A RAISE UNLESS WE DEMAND IT!

For one whole year, a Provincial Liberal Government elected on a platform of change has merely been complicit in perpetuating their predecessors anti-poor agenda. The Liberals have made miserable token gestures when serious action was called for. This Government will continue to consolidate the war on the poor until it is challenged by way of a serious social mobilization.

If you're on OW or ODSP today, you know that the rates are not enough to live on. The 3% raise recently given by the Liberal Government is an insultingly pathetic gesture. For a single person on welfare it amounts to a measly $15.60/ per month. This is not good enough. People are sick of making choices between rent and food, clothing and transportation. People have had enough. We deserve better. We need a 40% raise to restore the 21.7% cut to welfare and fully compensate for ten years of inflation / cost of living increases.

PCAP and our allies across Ontario are organizing in a major way to get the rates raised. We know the liberals have the money but we will have to fight to get it. PCAP is joining people across the province in mobilizing to get a raise in the assistance rates. We know that we won’t get a raise unless we come out in record numbers and put continued pressure on the Liberals to give us what we deserve. We will be heard!