Current rates for social assistance in Ontario leave many recipients struggling below the country’s deep poverty threshold and unable to meet their basic needs. 

We believe that doubling rates for Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program is essential to giving everyone a fair shot at a good life. No one should be living in poverty. 

We call upon elected officials representing all Ontarians, to include allocations in the 2024-2025 budget that:  

• Double Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates to bring people’s income above the official poverty line; and 
• Index both ODSP and OW rates to inflation. 

If you agree that we need to Make it Livable, please read our official budget submission below and endorse United Way Elgin Middlesex’s recommendation to Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) by adding your name below, before February 20th, 2024.

January 15, 2024

Budget submission: Raising social assistance rates in Ontario

On behalf of United Way Elgin Middlesex, we urge the Ontario Legislature to take immediate steps to Make it Livable for people receiving social assistance.

Specifically, we call upon you, as elected officials representing all Ontarians, to include allocations in the 2024-2025 budget that:

• Double Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates to bring people’s income above the official poverty line; and
• Index both OW and ODSP rates to inflation

Supporting Ontario’s Roadmap to Wellness, and the recommended four Provincial priority areas – Housing Security, Income Security and Inclusive Employment, Inclusive Communities and Support for the Social Services Sector – these recommendations address the unignorable hurdles to a strong and vibrant Ontario, especially through the current crisis of affordability.

Ontario’s 2024-2025 budget comes at a time of both challenge and opportunity for the province. While confronting record inflation, food insecurity, a critical lack of affordable housing, escalating mental health and addiction-related needs, and a greater complexity and demand for community services, the province is growing and revitalizing at a rapid rate. Growth brings opportunity as investments can do double duty, enhancing health and social outcomes while supporting equitable and inclusive growth.

People dealing with family crises, health issues, disability, or chronic unemployment rely on social assistance to carry them through to the next, better chapter of their lives.

However, current social assistance rates leave them, in most instances, at less than half Canada’s official poverty line (Market Basket Measurement, or MBM), and many are below the Deep Income Poverty Threshold (MBM_DIP).

• As calculated by the federal Market Basket Measurement, the poverty line for a single person in Ontario is $2,302/month ($27,631/year). The deep income poverty line is $1,727/month ($20,723/year).
• A single person on Ontario Works receives $733/month (one-third the poverty-line amount).  A single person on Ontario Disability Support gets $1,308/month (a little more than one-half the poverty-line amount).
• An average market-rate, one-bedroom apartment in London, Ontario costs $1,364/month.
• OW rates have been frozen for five years, a period when Canada’s cumulative inflation totalled 18 per cent. ODSP rates increased by 6.5 per cent in 2023 but did not go far enough to catch up with cumulative shortfalls.

The result: our most vulnerable neighbours – families with kids and people with disabilities – must make impossible choices about how to meet their daily needs. Their income affords them few opportunities to plan beyond immediate needs or to participate fully in the community. When their preoccupation is day-to-day survival, many need a longer bridge to the employment-readiness supports the Province offers. A livable income can be that bridge.

Doubling OW and ODSP rates would provide relief for low-income earners, while easing the social and health burdens they often bear disproportionately. Frontline partners at agencies funded by United Ways across the province are reporting record high numbers of community members needing supports, and an increasing complexity of issues facing both urban and rural communities.

The issue

• 2021 reports indicate Canada’s overall poverty rate is 7.4%, Ontario’s poverty rate is 10.2%, and the Elgin-Middlesex poverty rate is 15.2%.
• 1 in 4 kids in Elgin-Middlesex is living in poverty.
• The Poverty Trends in London 2020 report shows that poverty is disproportionately impacting Indigenous Londoners, newcomers, and immigrants.

The impact

• 1 in 7 households in Elgin-Middlesex lack the means for a diet that is nutritious, adequate and deemed culturally appropriate.
• Adults living in food-insecure households account for more than 1 in 3 hospitalizations due to mental health problems. In 2019 alone, poverty in our communities cost the Ontario health care system $3.9 billion.

The cost of inaction:

• Chronic illness and poor health are more prevalent in low-income families than those earning a livable wage; families in poverty utilize more healthcare resources. Health Quality Ontario reports that people living in the poorest neighbourhoods in Ontario account for nearly twice the total number of visits to the emergency department.
• Feed Ontario calculates poverty costs Ontario taxpayers $27.1 - 33 billion annually.

Just as their challenges affect all of us, doubling social assistance rates would also benefit all of us: in improved health, well-being, and worker productivity, and in spending that creates a positive multiplier effect in the local economy.

We know our shared goal of a prosperous Ontario is intrinsically linked to our social infrastructure which is critical in the face of the current affordability crisis across the province. We need to deliver concrete solutions that enable all Ontarians to house, feed and support our families. It is critical to take immediate action addressing the reality that social assistance rates have people in our province living in poverty.

Just like government, United Way is ready to do its best for the people of this province and we look forward to working with you to leverage the opportunities before us for the benefit of all Ontarians. Together we can make a difference. Additional and ongoing support for our communities is crucial to maintain the health and wellbeing of our citizens.