Income Security: A Roadmap for Change

The federal Canada Child Benefit, together with the OCB, extends financial help
to families beyond social assistance to support the cost of raising children, which
contributes to fewer single parents needing help through social assistance Child
tax benefits, along with other factors like more access to affordable child care,
resulted in single-parent families accounting for 28% of Ontario Works cases in
2016–17, as compared to 46% in 1998–99 Substantial increases to federal child
benefits in July 2016 may lead to even fewer families turning to Ontario Works
for help However, access still needs to be improved, particularly in First Nations
communities where enrollment in tax-system-based benefits is limited 68
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE IN THE INCOME
SECURITY CONTEXT
Social assistance is a substantial component of the
income security system in Ontario—one that has been
called on to do much more in the past few decades.
There are consequences when income security programs do not work well, and
the main consequence is that more people need to rely on social assistance as a
“first resort” for much longer periods of time. Put another way, social assistance
has become the safety net not just for people who are unable to work, but for
people failed by those programs whose purpose is to protect them from job
loss and help them reconnect to the workforce There are two social assistance
programs that people turn to in Ontario:
• The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) provides income support for
people with disabilities, recognizing the higher cost of living with a disability
and the social and economic barriers people may face
68 Toronto Star, “Indigenous children on reserves miss out on child benefit”,
July 20, 2017
58 Income Security: A Roadmap for Change