Doing the math on ODSP

When is five per cent not five per cent?

This may sound like a philosophical riddle, but in Premier Doug Ford’s Ontario, it’s a question that half a million people on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) have been forced to grapple with in the midst of an affordability crisis where every dollar counts.

After sustained public pressure, Ford finally promised a meagre five per cent increase to ODSP rates, effective on September 2022 cheques. This works out to about $60 more per month for a single person receiving the maximum ODSP benefits.

The Ford government has now spent months touting the increase as the biggest in recent history, never mentioning that they were also responsible for slashing a planned rate increase in 2018, and then freezing social assistance rates for years while inflation eroded purchasing power.

But let’s stick to the question: when is five per cent not five per cent?

ODSP and Ontario Works (OW) rates are broken up into “basic needs” and “shelter” amounts.

ODSP clients who live in private market housing received a five per cent increase to both amounts, but those who live in subsidized housing only got the increase applied to their “basic needs.” This busts the five per cent increase down to about three per cent.

For a single person on ODSP, that’s about $25 less per month — a tiny amount by government budget standards, but for someone on ODSP whose income is around $14,000 a year, it could mean one fewer trip to the food bank each month.

ODSP also offers discretionary benefits for a variety of specific client circumstances, such as special diet and remote community allowances. Although not everyone on ODSP qualifies for these benefits, these benefits increased by zero per cent.

For example, a single person on ODSP who receives the maximum basic needs amount and basic shelter amount (previously $1169/month), who requires a special diet related to a medical condition and who is pregnant, is not going to see a five per cent increase to their total ODSP income.

That five per cent becomes just over four per cent.

Ontario Works (sometimes referred to as “welfare”) is meant to provide temporary financial support for those who cannot find a job, those fleeing violent personal situations, and other situations that qualify.

The average Ontarian might be surprised to learn that many OW clients are people with disabilities trying to access ODSP. The ODSP applicant may be waiting to receive medical assessments that would confirm eligibility, or they may face processing lags or appeal backlogs.

While they wait, they’re forced to live on $733 a month, the maximum amount for a single person on OW.

That five per cent rate increase becomes zero, because the Ford government did not increase rates for all social assistance recipients.

The most important math lesson of all is that none of the increases noted above come anywhere close enough to lift people on ODSP to a livable income, especially in the face of rampant inflation, years of stagnated rates and various “clawback” rules that reduce other sources of income.

The Ford government needs to fix the math.

Doubling ODSP rates wouldn’t just mean more money in the pockets of clients — it would mean more money spent in local communities. It would mean reduced reliance on food banks and other public supports. It would mean fewer emergency room visits and improved health in the long term.

And most of all, it would show that the government is actually trying to solve the problem of legislated poverty for people on ODSP.