Ontario Raises Income Ceiling For Odsp Recipients

The pledge was made in the province’s fall financial statement Monday afternoon.
In the document, the government says it is increasing the monthly amount a person can earn on the ODSP before their benefit is reduced from $200 to $1,000.  After that, for every dollar the ODSP recipient receives, their benefits will be reduced by 25 cents.
Before this change, payouts were reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned after $200.
“These changes will allow the roughly 25,000 people currently in the workforce to keep more of their earnings and could encourage up to 25,000 more to join the workforce,” the economic statement said.
Based on these statistics, the new changes will affect about 10 per cent of the province’s nearly half a million ODSP recipients.
For those unable to work, little has changed.
“I understand they want to do everything they can to continue helping people with disabilities enter the workforce … but what about those who can’t?”  ODSP recipient Anne Jensen told CTV News Toronto after the announcement.  “We’re kind of stuck here.”
The province raised ODSP rates by five per cent as part of its election campaign earlier this year and tied any future increases to inflation, starting in January 2023. But Jensen called the increase “almost insulting.”
“The five percent increase was a joke,” he said.
Jensen said she’s not getting the full five percent raise and that while every dollar helps, she can’t afford rent in her hometown of Kitchener.
“No one can live like this,” he said.  “If we can’t pay for rent and food … it’s all very frustrating.”
ODSP recipients currently make about $1,227 a month if they get the full five percent raise.  That equates to about $60 a day or just over $300 a week.
A new report by the Ontario Living Wage Network said Monday that those living in the GTA need to make at least $23.15 an hour to “get by and enjoy moderate participation in the civic and cultural community.”
Ontario’s minimum wage is $15.50 an hour, or about $124 a day.
Advocates have long called for doubling ODSP rates.  Every political party except Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives made this pledge during the provincial election.
In July, the Income Security Advocacy Center (ISAC) sent a letter signed by 200 advocates calling for ODSP rates to be doubled, saying inflation and rising costs have made the current rates — which have been frozen since 2018 — unviable.  .
In a statement released Monday, ISAC said the government missed “a critical opportunity to reinvest surplus dollars in increased welfare rates, social programs and programs that will protect and support low-income workers.”
“Allowing ODSP clients to keep more of the dollars they’ve already earned will go a long way toward helping those who are able to work,” ISAC Senior Policy Analyst Devorah Kobluk said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, today’s announcement leaves people who rely on (Ontario Works) even further behind. They have had no rate increase, are unable to earn another income and are forced to continue to survive on $733 a month.”
Ontario Works recipients are not subject to the five per cent increase in benefits.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he was “very proud” that his government had increased the income cap for ODSP recipients.  He called the decision to link future increases to inflation “significant”.
He also said that raising the income cap “encourages disabled people who want to increase their working hours to do so and promotes greater participation in the workforce”.
The Abilities Centre, an organization founded by former PC cabinet minister Christine Elliott, said the government’s new proposal was a “game changer”.
Interim CEO Mark Wafer said there was an incentive for those on ODSP to work because of the income cap.
“Now the Ontario government has changed that in a very, very important way,” he said.  “What it does is it lifts people with disabilities who can work out of poverty and gives them an opportunity to enrich their eyes and have financial security.”
Wafer said this policy will affect the lives of thousands of Ontarians.
The fall financial statement was released the same day Toronto’s food banks said they were in “crisis.”
About 190,000 people sought help from the Daily Bread Food Bank last month, the organization said.

title: “Ontario Raises Income Ceiling For Odsp Recipients " ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-27” author: “Danny Tate”

The pledge was made in the province’s fall financial statement Monday afternoon.
In the document, the government says it is increasing the monthly amount a person can earn on the ODSP before their benefit is reduced from $200 to $1,000.  After that, for every dollar the ODSP recipient receives, their benefits will be reduced by 25 cents.
Before this change, payouts were reduced by 50 cents for every dollar earned after $200.
“These changes will allow the roughly 25,000 people currently in the workforce to keep more of their earnings and could encourage up to 25,000 more to join the workforce,” the economic statement said.
Based on these statistics, the new changes will affect about 10 per cent of the province’s nearly half a million ODSP recipients.
For those unable to work, little has changed.
“I understand they want to do everything they can to continue helping people with disabilities enter the workforce … but what about those who can’t?”  ODSP recipient Anne Jensen told CTV News Toronto after the announcement.  “We’re kind of stuck here.”
The province raised ODSP rates by five per cent as part of its election campaign earlier this year and tied any future increases to inflation, starting in January 2023. But Jensen called the increase “almost insulting.”
“The five percent increase was a joke,” he said.
Jensen said she’s not getting the full five percent raise and that while every dollar helps, she can’t afford rent in her hometown of Kitchener.
“No one can live like this,” he said.  “If we can’t pay for rent and food … it’s all very frustrating.”
ODSP recipients currently make about $1,227 a month if they get the full five percent raise.  That equates to about $60 a day or just over $300 a week.
A new report by the Ontario Living Wage Network said Monday that those living in the GTA need to make at least $23.15 an hour to “get by and enjoy moderate participation in the civic and cultural community.”
Ontario’s minimum wage is $15.50 an hour, or about $124 a day.
Advocates have long called for doubling ODSP rates.  Every political party except Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives made this pledge during the provincial election.
In July, the Income Security Advocacy Center (ISAC) sent a letter signed by 200 advocates calling for ODSP rates to be doubled, saying inflation and rising costs have made the current rates — which have been frozen since 2018 — unviable.  .
In a statement released Monday, ISAC said the government missed “a critical opportunity to reinvest surplus dollars in increased welfare rates, social programs and programs that will protect and support low-income workers.”
“Allowing ODSP clients to keep more of the dollars they’ve already earned will go a long way toward helping those who are able to work,” ISAC Senior Policy Analyst Devorah Kobluk said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, today’s announcement leaves people who rely on (Ontario Works) even further behind. They have had no rate increase, are unable to earn another income and are forced to continue to survive on $733 a month.”
Ontario Works recipients are not subject to the five per cent increase in benefits.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he was “very proud” that his government had increased the income cap for ODSP recipients.  He called the decision to link future increases to inflation “significant”.
He also said that raising the income cap “encourages disabled people who want to increase their working hours to do so and promotes greater participation in the workforce”.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy releases Ontario’s Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review at the legislature in Queens Park, Toronto, Monday, November 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young 
The Abilities Centre, an organization founded by former PC cabinet minister Christine Elliott, said the government’s new proposal was a “game changer”.
Interim CEO Mark Wafer said there was an incentive for those on ODSP to work because of the income cap.
“Now the Ontario government has changed that in a very, very important way,” he said.  “What it does is it lifts people with disabilities who can work out of poverty and gives them an opportunity to enrich their eyes and have financial security.”
Wafer said this policy will affect the lives of thousands of Ontarians.
The fall financial statement was released the same day Toronto’s food banks said they were in “crisis.”
About 190,000 people sought help from the Daily Bread Food Bank last month, the organization said.