Income Security: A Roadmap for Change

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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
• Ontario Works is intended for everyone else, premised on the often wrong assumption that most people need just temporary income support until they can (generally pretty quickly) get back to work Given the role these programs must play, it is important to recognize the limitations that need to change: • The legislative framework generally focusses on “keeping people off social assistance” rather than supporting them in achieving their goals • Ontario Works fails to recognize the complexity of people’s situations and their diverse needs • The service approach is focussed on eligibility administration and “policing”, using many paper-based processes, with caseworkers’ time often consumed by low-impact tasks rather than supporting individuals and solving problems • The lack of supports and complicated rules and processes around ODSP applications make the program diffcult to access. • People are not approached in a way that consistently honours their individual experience, including historic trauma, violence and intergenerational poverty • Attitudinal and societal barriers embedded in the programs do not support people’s abilities, capacities or goals Income Security: A Roadmap for Change 59
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INCOME SECURITY A Roadmap for Chang
Page 4 and 5:
ACHIEVING INCOME ADEQUACY69 Setting
Page 6 and 7:
A CLOSING NOTE164 APPENDIX A: Membe
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INCOME SECURITY: FUTURE STATE Essen
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3. Recognizing the Experience of In
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ENGAGING THE WHOLE INCOME SECURITY
Page 14 and 15: • The federal government enhance
Page 16 and 17: • Individual choice and well-bein
Page 18 and 19: • Conduct analyses on current and
Page 20 and 21: A TRANSFORMED SOCIAL ASSISTANCE STR
Page 22 and 23: • Initially exempt 25% of Canada
Page 24 and 25: SELF-GOVERNANCE AND RESPECT FOR FIR
Page 26 and 27: • First Nations social service pr
Page 28 and 29: • The capabilities, skills and pr
Page 30 and 31: SEQUENCING REFORM The Roadmap recom
Page 32 and 33: We recommend the Province commit to
Page 34 and 35: 2015 also saw a commitment by the f
Page 36 and 37: MESSAGE FROM THE URBAN INDIGENOUS T
Page 38 and 39: Community members stressed the impo
Page 40 and 41: INTRODUCTION PURPOSE The Income Sec
Page 42 and 43: Income Security Reform in the conte
Page 44 and 45: 2. Essential needs are increasingly
Page 46 and 47: • Research by the Social Planning
Page 48 and 49: The Additional Costs of Disability
Page 50 and 51: • From 2011 to 2014, the incidenc
Page 52 and 53: • Studies also show that adult-on
Page 54 and 55: • Indigenous peoples have signifi
Page 56 and 57: A NOTE ON PREVIOUS REPORTS Over the
Page 58 and 59: ONTARIO’S INCOME SECURITY SYSTEM
Page 60 and 61: services 64 More than 68% of socia
Page 62 and 63: FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL INCOME SECUR
Page 66 and 67: ENVISIONING THE FUTURE VISION All i
Page 68 and 69: GUIDING PRINCIPLES The following pr
Page 70 and 71: and structural racism to ensure equ
Page 72 and 73: 3. Recognizing the Experience of In
Page 74 and 75: Critical steps must also be taken t
Page 76 and 77: areas, including remote areas In se
Page 78 and 79: DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS 1.1 The Pr
Page 80 and 81: ONTARIO HOUSING BENEFIT Recommendat
Page 82 and 83: • People must be able to access a
Page 84 and 85: “I’ve been waiting for housing
Page 86 and 87: Children who are being cared for by
Page 88 and 89: When a child is in the care of a Ch
Page 90 and 91: WORKING INCOME TAX BENEFIT Recommen
Page 92 and 93: CORE HEALTH BENEFITS Recommendation
Page 94 and 95: A key strength of Ontario’s curre
Page 96 and 97: TRANSFORMING SOCIAL ASSISTANCE OBJE
Page 98 and 99: DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS 7.1 Develo
Page 100 and 101: People need to feel they have perso
Page 102 and 103: focussing primarily on eligibility
Page 104 and 105: • People are able to access servi
Page 106 and 107: • A simpler social assistance str
Page 108 and 109: 8.6 Regularly situate Ontario Works
Page 110 and 111: We note that ODSP has many positive
Page 112 and 113: as simple and streamlined as possib
Page 114 and 115:
9.4 Provide provincial-level assist
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Because moving to an assured income
Page 118 and 119:
A TRANSFORMED SOCIAL ASSISTANCE STR
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This flat-rate structure would appl
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DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS 11.1 Trans
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First Nations Delivery Agents of On
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INCOME AND ASSETS Recommendation 13
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additional costs they may have—wh
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HELPING THOSE IN DEEPEST POVERTY OB
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Single Non-disabled Person Fall 201
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• Setting the Standard Flat Rate
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The first Indian Act was passed by
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While the recommendations noted abo
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DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS 16.1 Based
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16.10 Take steps to ensure that Fir
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• Community-based initiatives spe
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• Increasing and expediting help
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Until further changes to the 1965 A
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A CALL ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT Th
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The Roadmap emphasizes the need for
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IMPLEMENTING AND MEASURING CHANGE M
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3. The need to take a system-wide a
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SEQUENCING CHANGE: A 10-YEAR ROADMA
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YEAR 2 The second year of implement
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YEARS 4 TO 10 Years 4 to 10 will ma
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THE COST OF INACTION Poverty is int
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• Ontario Drug Benefit costs for
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• Social Assistance, through: •
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A CLOSING NOTE This Roadmap holds t
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Violet Boissoneau Linda Cobiness Jo
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APPENDIX B: POVERTY REDUCTION STRAT
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Canada Pension Plan - Disability (C
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Indigenous Friendship Centres: Not-
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Old Age Security (OAS): A pension p
Page 182 and 183:
Rent-Geared-To-Income (RGI): Financ
Page 184 and 185:
Trauma-informed practice: Practices
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Income Security: A Roadmap for Change

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