ODSP | Open Policy Ontario

10May 2020 by johnastapleton

Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus provides lessons for COVID19 compensation

Christopher Marlowe was just 29 when he died in 1593 but his most famous play, The Tragicall History of Dr. Faustus, made its debut in the early 1600’s. Born in the same year as Shakespeare, the final version of Dr. Faustus was published in the year of Shakespeare’s death in 1616. The plague that hit two centuries earlier had permeated the imagination of 16th century Britain especially as this was an age that had little idea of what a vaccine might be or how one would work. “Are not thy bills hung up as monuments, Whereby whole cities have escap’d the plague, And thousand desperate maladies been cur’d?”[1] Indeed, both Marlowe and Shakespeare were fortunate to have lived a long generation before the resurgence of the plague in London in…

16Jun 2017 by johnastapleton

New social assistance asset test welcome news

The 50 year experiment forcing welfare recipients and low income persons with disabilities into financial destitution finally appears to be over. In Charles Sousa’s Budget 2017, asset limits for single welfare recipients will be raised from $2,500 to $10,000 for a single person and to $11,000 for a lone parent with two children. Persons with disabilities will have their asset limits raised from $5,000 to $40,000 for singles and from $7,500 to $50,000 for couples. The amount families will be able to donate to family members receiving assistance will go from $6,000 a year to $10,000. This is welcome news after the initial moves in 2013 that quadrupled asset limits for single welfare recipients from the equivalent of one month’s assistance (about $650) and allowed families to donate money to…

26Feb 2016 by johnastapleton

A ‘Robin Hood’ Budget for 2016 in Ontario

“Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men Feared by the bad, loved by the good Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.” In the Budget lockup yesterday, I started to silently sing the Robin Hood song that I learned back in the 1950’s as a kid. Robin Hood was the mediaeval archer who took from the rich and gave to the poor. Robin Hood was brave and Kathleen Wynne may be even braver. There are lots of new sin taxes and levies on the better off that became the fodder for 680 News over the evening and morning hours. There were some great interviews with ‘objective’ listeners who were “unhappy” or who thought the Budget was “ridiculous”. Cigarettes up by three…

03Jan 2016 by johnastapleton

Social Assistance in Ontario: Periods of Tumult and Calm

For the first time in over a year and without much fanfare, the Ontario Government has begun to publish monthly social assistance caseload numbers. One guesses that the reason for the hiatus was the much-reported troubles with their new social assistance computer system called SAMS. The newest figures are for November 2015 and the new charts on the MCSS website include caseload figures going back two years including the 13 months from November 2014 to November 2015 that were missing. They are here for Ontario Works: http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/social/reports/OW_EN_2015-11.pdf and here for ODSP: http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/documents/en/mcss/social/reports/ODSP_EN_2015-11.pdf This has allowed me to update an excel file which many readers have seen in the past that includes reliable data for the last 35 years (since 1981) for caseloads (payments) , beneficiaries (men women and children receiving assistance), unemployment, and population. Some…

27Dec 2015 by johnastapleton

Time to look at income security for low income older adults with disabilities

One of the long term goals I have for Open Policy is to cover all aspects of income security for all age groups for low income people with and without disabilities. This year, Open Policy managed to add a critical piece with the publication of Every Ninth Child in Ontario: A Cost-Benefit Analysis for Investing in the Care of Special Needs Children and Youth in Ontario with my colleagues Alexa Briggs, Celia Lee, Brendon Pooran and Rene Doucet. Children and youth with disabilities and their income security needs are extremely important and I hope there will be more contributions from my colleagues and I on this front in the future. The following is a chart that I have had in my head for years but I never sat down and…

01Mar 2015 by johnastapleton

Much of my life I have been a struggling low income person: Guest blog by Pamela Chynn

I am talking today as a struggling university and journalism student, as a person who has on and off been on social assistance, as a person who has been on unemployment insurance a few times, as a person who has a couple of times been technically homeless and has been through the surreal roller coaster nightmare of couch surfing, as a temp worker, as a minimum wage worker and currently after having endured several years of bullying that resulted in suffering a long and hard battle with depression and anxiety - temporarily on ODSP. Because of this, I know all too well the struggles of being in poverty, of having had to live in inadequate housing that was detrimental to both my physical , mental and emotional health, of having to…

16May 2014 by johnastapleton

No piece of cake! Linda Chamberlain applies for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)

I am supposed to know about retiring on a low income. That includes obtaining the Guaranteed Income Supplement for people who turn age 65.I am supporting the Old Age Security application of a woman named Linda Chamberlain. She turns 65 on July 3, 2014. This will be in some ways a dress rehearsal for my own application since I turn 65 in August 2015. Right now, Linda has no income other than her ODSP cheque and the odd gift from others. We did not apply for a meagre amount of CPP. I wrote about that here: Linda Chamberlain and CPP Linda’s move to Old Age Security is a good story. Her income will go from about $1,035 a month to $1,700. However, since she lives in subsidized housing, her rent…

30Jul 2013 by johnastapleton

Social assistance numbers in Ontario: Classic convergence or something else?

Currently social assistance beneficiaries (men, women and children over population) hover between 6.5% and 6.6% of Ontario's population. We have remained at this percentage since May 2011 which means that caseloads are at an equilibrium point, a point of relative calm. Since the late 1980's, Ontario's unemployment rate has tended to converge with the percentage of beneficiaries in a post-recession period. It is an odd convergence but it has just reached its silver anniversary of 25 years (the relation first showed strongly in 1988) with May's unemployment rate of 7.3% and social assistance recipiency at 6.6% -- less than a single percentage point. (For details see http://openpolicyontario.com/presentations/.) In June 2009, unemployment stood at 9.6% and social assistance beneficiaries at 6.0% of population. This 3.6% difference in percentage points, interestingly enough, was the largest divergence…

31May 2013 by johnastapleton

“Minister Jeffrey: Tear down this wall”

In July 2012, I visited Berlin for the first time since 1972 when the Berlin wall was still standing. It was interesting to see how parts of the wall had been retained as an outdoor museum. No matter where I went, memorabilia celebrating the famous call by Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987 were available. On that day, Reagan famously intoned “Mr. Gorbachev – tear down this wall”. On June 11, 2013, just one day short of the anniversary of Reagan’s famous speech, many of us will be celebrating the launch of Linda Chamberlain’s scrapbook: Not Anytime Soon – the life and times of Linda Chamberlain. We shall invite Ontario Housing Minister Linda Jeffrey to the event. Not Anytime Soon contains excerpts of a meditation I wrote in 2010 called…

16Apr 2013 by johnastapleton

More thoughts on Ontario social assistance caseloads

Ontario unemployment and SA rates 1981 to 2008, 2009 monthly to February 2013 (Excel file) All appears placid when looking at social assistance beneficiary totals (i.e. men, women and children) in Ontario in early 2013. Since March to May 2012 when several categories in Ontario Works reached post recession highs, the Ontario Works totals have receded by about 12,000 while ODSP has inched up by a similar number over the same period. This means that the percentage of Ontario's population in receipt of social assistance remains stubbornly at about 6.5%, slightly higher than similar periods following major post-war recessions. It would make it easier to understand and communicate if there was one 'magic bullet' that explained it all - but alas, there are many interwoven reasons that explain what's happening 'under…