Researcher's Guide
to Welfare in Ontario

L'aide sociale en Ontario:
un guide de recherche

NOTE: This page is a snapshot of how the welfare system works in Ontario.
If you're looking for the latest Ontario welfare info, try one of the following pages:

- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Government Links page
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario Non-Governmental and Municipal Govt. Sites (A-C) page
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario Non-Governmental and Municipal Govt. Sites (D-W) page
- Canadian Social Research Links Review of social assistance in Ontario links page
- Canadian Social Research Links Ontario - Spouse-in-the-House page ("The Falkiner Case")
- Rendez-vous à la page de Liens aux sites de recherche sociale en Ontario
- Canadian Social Research Links Provincial-Territorial Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page - includes a large Ontario section
- Canadian Social Research Links Provincial-Territorial Political Parties and Elections in Canada - incl. Ontario election links
- Canadian Social Research Links Government Budget Links page - incl. Ontario budget links

If you're not sure how welfare works in Canada, I highly recommend the following resource:

Social Assistance in Canada: An Overview * (7 pages)
*This is the second chapter of:
Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2008
[Posted online July 2011]
Produced by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Directors of Income Support
This report includes a description of, and statistics related to, the welfare system in each province and territory, information about federal-provincial-territorial jurisdictional and funding issues, a bit of historical info on the Canada Assistance Plan and the Canada Health and Social Transfer, etc.

Links to the earlier editions of this report:
* Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2007
* Social Assistance Statistical Report: 2006

Source:
Social Policy
[ Human Resources and Skills Development Canada ]

According to the 2011
Annual Report of the Auditor General of Ontario:

Ontario Works (OW)
The Ontario Works program is delivered on behalf of the Ministry by 47 Consolidated Municipal Service Managers and District Social Services Administration Boards as well as 101 First Nations, all referred to as service managers. A service manager is typically either a large municipality or a grouping of smaller ones, and each is accountable to one of the Ministry’s nine regional offices. The Ministry and the service managers share the total financial and employment assistance costs of the Ontario Works program. The Ministry, which currently pays 81% of these costs, has committed to start gradually increasing its share in 2010 until it pays 100% in 2018. Administrative costs will continue to be shared on a 50/50 basis.

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Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)
The Ministry of Community and Social Services (Ministry) administers the Ontario Disability Support Program Act (Act), which provides income and employment support to more than 270,000 individuals with eligible disabilities as defined by the Act. Total annual Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) benefit payments made in the 2010/11 fiscal year amounted to over $3.5 billion ($3 billion in 2008/09—which was a 42% increase since the time of our last audit in 2004). ODSP income support is intended to assist with
basic living expenses such as food, shelter, clothing,
and personal-needs items
Source:
2011 Annual Report of the Auditor General of Ontario

Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy:

On December 4, 2008, the Government of Ontario committed itself to reducing the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over the next 5 years.
For a large and current collection of links to up-to-date online resources about the Ontario strategy from the Ontario government and from NGOs, go to the Canadian Social Research Links Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm
(click on "Ontario" in the list of provinces at the top of the page.)

Program Name
and Description

City of Toronto - Employment and Social Services
Working under the Ontario Works Act, Employment and Social Services provides employment services, social supports and financial benefits. Staff in 14 community-based offices deliver the Ontario Works program and support City initiatives. Each office has an Employment Resource Centre, open to all residents

 
Type of Applicant

Non-disabled people in financial need living in Toronto

Ministry Responsible

News Releases

Service Delivery/Funding

"The cost of Ontario Works financial and employment assistance is currently shared by the province (81.2 per cent) and municipalities (18.8 per cent). As part of a plan to upload these costs incrementally, the province will cover 100 per cent of these costs by 2018. Administration costs are shared on a 50-50 basis between the province and municipalities. The province covers 100 per cent of the costs of ODSP."
Source:
Ontario Social Assistance Review Commission (2011)

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Province Eases Financial Pressures on Municipalities and Property Taxpayers
Provincial and municipal partners reach agreement
News Release
October 31, 2008
The McGuinty government is moving to upload all social assistance benefits and court security costs from municipalities, as stated in an agreement announced today by the Province of Ontario, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and the City of Toronto.

Complete report:

Report of the Provincial-Municipal Fiscal
and Service Delivery Review - Facing the Future Together (PDF - 1.6MB, 64 pages)
Fall 2008

Uploading Ontario Works
- this fact sheet (one of several backgrounders and related documents found on the Fiscal and Service Delivery website) provides a brief description of the current provincial-municipal funding arrangement for welfare in Ontario and a 10-year timeline for the gradual uploading of 100% of welfare costs to the provincial government.

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Some contextual information:
* Ontario is the only Canadian province that still requires a direct municipal government contribution towards the cost of providing welfare (known as the Ontario Works Program or OW) to the able-bodied needy population residing within their municipal boundaries. Municipalities pay 20% of the total OW bill on their territory.
* Last-resort financial assistance for people with disabilities is provided under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). Municipalities also pay 20% of the total ODSP bill on their territory.
* The Ontario Government has already announced that the cost of ODSP will be gradually be transferred to the provincial government between 2009 and 2011.
-----

Source:
Provincial Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review
[ Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing ]

Related links:

Hefty housing costs stay local in "good news / bad news" provincial funding deal
October 31, 2008
By Michael Shapcott
Good news: The Ontario government, along with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the City of Toronto, jointly announced earlier today a plan to upload the costs of several provincial income assistance programs back to the provincial level over the next decade. This will give municipalities some significant fiscal breathing room – as it takes the cost of this income-distributive program off the municipal tax base and returns it to the provincial tax base, where it belongs. The timing is good as the demand for income assistance programs may well increase with the current economic crisis. Bad news: The cost of the provincial social housing program – which was downloaded to municipalities under the former Harris government starting in 1998 – remains at the local level.
Source:
Wellesley Institute Blog
[ The Wellesley Institute ]
The Wellesley Institute advances the social determinants of health through community-based research , community engagement , and the informing of public policy.

Uploading move good but slow
November 1, 2008
It won't happen as quickly as urban advocates would like, but a newly announced deal between Ontario and its hard-pressed municipalities goes a considerable way toward lifting a historic burden from them. In the deal announced yesterday, the province has agreed to "upload" the cost of all welfare benefits from municipalities (which now pay 20 per cent of the cost) by 2018. An important principle is thus underlined – income support programs are best paid through the income and sales taxes, not through property taxes. Collectively, Ontario's municipalities stand to save more than $400 million yearly from this shift.
Source:
The Toronto Star

---------------------------------

General and specific powers
under The Municipal Act

Results-based Plan Briefing Book 2010-11
NOTE : APPENDIX I of this report contains Annual Report 2009-10
Source:
Ministry of Community and Social Services

Historical:

Recent changes in provincial-municipal relations in Ontario : a new era or missed opportunity? (PDF file - 50K, 22 pages)
April 2003
By David Siegel, Department of Political Science - Brock University
- analysis of the change in provincial-municipal relations and responsibilities in Ontario since the Mike Harris Common Sense Revolution
Source:
Institute of Intergovernmental Relations
School of Policy Studies

----------------------------------------------------------

Roles and responsibilities - 2001:
the provincial-municipal relationship in human services (PDF - 288K, 84 pages)
Source:
Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Local Services Realignment : A User's Guide
November 1999
- detailed information about the shift in responsibilities for delivering and paying for
services between the Government of Ontario and municipalities throughout the province.
Source : Ministry of Municipal Affairs

Related Links:
Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO)
Ontario Municipal Social Services Association (OMSSA)

Caseload and Expenditure  Statistics
- Current

Quarterly Statistical Reports - Caseloads and Beneficiaries

- 30 months (formerly five years) of statistics on ODSP and OW caseloads (i.e., number of households) and beneficiaries (i.e., number of individual recipients)
- includes breakdowns by family type (singles / couples / sole support parents)
- the two links below will take you to the most recent version of the statistics in each case

* Ontario Disability Support Program Quarterly Statistical Report

* Ontario Works Quarterly Statistical Report.

Caseload and Expenditure Statistics
- Historical

Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces
1978-79 to 2002-03
http://goo.gl/iuNQ0

NOTE: As at January 2012, this report is no longer available on the Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSDC) website. All of the links below will take you to archived copies of the contents of the latest report in this series from the Government of Canada Web Archive:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/index-e.html
If deleted website content is the bane of your existence too, see Brickbats (to HRSDC) and Bouquets (to the Government of Canada Web Archive) in the yellow text box below!

This report is a goldmine of statistical information (beneficiary data and expenditure data) on current and defunct Canadian federal social programs, and even some on provincial/territorial programs.

This report offers 25 years of longitudinal data on costs and numbers of beneficiaries for most programs - over 100 tables - covering a large number of programs --- here's a partial list:
- Child Tax Benefit, Family Allowances, the Child Tax Credit, Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement/Spouse's Allowance ("The Allowance"), Federal Training and Employment Programs, Federal Goods and Services Tax Credit, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans, War Veterans' and Civilian War Allowances, Veterans' and Civilians' Disability Pensions, Unemployment/Employment Insurance, the Canada Assistance Plan, Workers' Compensation, Youth Allowances, Social Assistance and Social Services for Registered Indians --- and more...

---------------------------

Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces
1978-79 to 2002-03
http://goo.gl/iuNQ0
NOTE : This is an archived copy from the Government of Canada Web Archive:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/index-e.html

Preface (short blurb only)
http://goo.gl/830Pp

List of Tables
http://goo.gl/66N3I
Read the Introductory notes at the top of the page and in Appendix A [ http://goo.gl/uU7TX ] of this report for all methodological notes.
"...Tables in this report have been organized into two parts. Part I presents three Overview Tables which illustrate the trends in social security expenditures by all levels of government for Canada. Part II comprises Component Tables which provide data on beneficiaries and expenditures for individual programs."

A number of older tables were removed from this edition of the Social Security Statistics report, including some tables with info on Blind Persons' Allowances, Disabled Persons' Allowances and Unemployed Assistance.
Check older editions of this report for those older stats:
http://goo.gl/NgYfn

Many of the tables are historical and likely of little interest except to historians and CAP-o-philes --- they offer historical caseload and expenditure statistics on each of the CAP cost-sharing components (General Assistance - Homes for Special Care for Children and Adults - Child Welfare - Health Care - Other Welfare Services and Work Activity).

Scroll down the list of tables [ http://goo.gl/66N3I ] to find a particular program, then click on its name to access the HTML version of the table (the HTML page includes links to the PDF and Excel versions of the table).

You'll find many key stats tables and some interesting analyses here - only a few of which appear below
- includes links to over two dozen tables (Tables 352-911) with info on federal contributions under the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) and the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) to the cost of provincial and territorial welfare programs.
NOTE: for more info about CAP, the CHST and the Canada Social Transfer (CST, which replaced the CHST in April 2004), see the Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources page of this site:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/cap.htm

A few sample tables:

Table 360
Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Program Expenditures, 1978-78 to 1999-2000
http://goo.gl/6dgGz
NOTE: Table 360 traces the evolution/devolution of transfers under the Canada Assistance Plan (in dollars) from 1976 to 1999. No new claims were paid out under CAP after the Canada Health and Social Transfer came into effect in April 1996; amounts shown as CAP expenditures for the fiscal years after 1995-96 are final settlements with each jurisdiction for all outstanding commitments by the federal government.

Table 361
Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) - Number of Beneficiaries of General Assistance (including dependants), as of March 31, 1979 to 1996
http://goo.gl/4T2ce
- This is a key table for research on welfare programs - welfare dependency statistics by jurisdiction over the years. These are the final, definitive numbers.

Table 362
Total Federal-Provincial Cost-Shared Expenditures for General Assistance, by Province/Territory, 1978-79 to 1995-96
http://goo.gl/0z3yn
- this table should be of special interest for welfare historians and number-crunchers - it shows exactly when Canadian government spending on welfare (by the federal and provincial/territorial governments) started looking a little fuzzier. When the feds imposed the cap on CAP (max. 5% annual increase in total CAP payments) in Ontario, Alberta and BC in the early 1990s, those three provinces stopped reporting how much of their CAP dollars were going to welfare (vs. other CAP components covered under the same federal contribution). Table 362 shows that as of 1991-92, the federal contribution to those three provinces for General Assistance appears as "n/a" - so it's been impossible to produce a national figure since then. Unless, of course, one wanders over into the minefield of provincial government welfare statistics, where welfare programs (and related expenditures) have undergone a major transformation. If you *do* want to check out welfare stats for each Canadian jurisdiction, your best starting point is the Key Welfare Links Page of this website - http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/welfare.htm - which includes links to welfare stats in each province and territory where they're available.

Table 434
Total Federal Payments under CAP, 1978-79 to 1999-2000
http://goo.gl/DC0Y8
[The note under table 360 also applies to this table. ]

Table 435
Number of Beneficiaries (including dependants) of Provincial and Municipal Social Assistance, as of March 31, 1997 to 2003
http://goo.gl/Z8UYR

Table 438
Provincial and Municipal Social Assistance Program Expenditures, 1980-81 to 2002-03
http://goo.gl/l7tfV

Table 526
Provincial and Territorial Children's Benefits and Earned Income Supplements, Expenditures for Fiscal years 1978-79 to 2002-03
http://goo.gl/aKu9s

[Original] Source:
Social Policy
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/publications_resources/statistics/index.shtml

[ Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/home.shtml ]

Archive source:
Collections Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/
[Library and Archives Canada]

Ontario Disability Support Program Act

Ontario Works Act

- Regulations

Ontario Regulation 222/98
(Ontario Disability Support Program General Regulation )

Other regulations under the same statute:

- Administration and Cost-sharing
- Assistance for Children with severe Disabilities
- Employment Supports
- Prescribed Policy Statements

Ontario Regulation 134/98
(Ontario Works General Regulation)

Other regulations under the same statute:

- Administration and Cost-sharing
- Designation of Geographic Areas and Delivery Agents
- Prescribed Policy Statements

Ontario Regulation 134/98
(Ontario Works General Regulation)

ODSP Income Support Policy Directives - the ODSP Income Support policy manual.

ODSP - Employment Support Directives

Ontario Works Policy Directives
- incl. links to Determining Eligibility - Appeals - Managing Participation - Monitoring Eligibility - Administration of the Act

Toronto Social Services Policy
Alphabetical listing of City of Toronto welfare policies, from Absence From Ontario to Women at Risk of Abuse Protocol

Social Assistance Rates

Part V of the Ontario Disability Support Program Regulation

+ for families with chidren:
Ontario Child Benefit - from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services

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ODSP Income Support Policy Directives
(see sections 6-9)

Section 41 of the Ontario Works Regulation

+ for families with chidren:
Ontario Child Benefit - from the Ministry of Children and Youth Services

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Ontario Works Policy Directives (see sections 6 &7)

See Toronto Social Services Policy

Social Assistance, Pension and Tax Credit Rates, January - March 2011 (PDF - 166K, 2 pages)
Prepared by the
Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services
Recommended reading/saving/printing!
All in two pages, (just about) everything you ever
wanted to know about federal and provincial social program benefit levels in Ontario.
[This factsheet is mostly benefit levels and rates - to find corresponding program information, do a Google search using any program name from the list below...]

This factsheet contains current rate information (benefit levels)
for the following federal and Ontario programs:

* Federal Income Security and tax benefit programs
----- Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement, the Allowance (formerly Spouse's Allowance)
----- Canada Pension Plan
----- Harmonized Sales Tax Credit
----- Medical Expense Tax Credit
----- War Veterans Allowance
----- Employment Insurance
----- Canada Child Tax Benefit (incl. the Basic Child Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit Supplement, the Child Disability Benefit and the Universal Child Care Benefit)

* Ontario income assistance programs
----- Ontario Works - Social Assistance rates + earnings exemptions and incentives
----- Ontario Disability Support Program - Social Assistance rates
----- Ontario Guaranteed Annual Income System (provincial top-up for Ontario seniors receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement under the federal Old Age Security program)
----- Ontario Child Benefit
----- Ontario Child Care Supplement for Working Families
----- Ontario Sales and Property Tax Credits
----- Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities

Found in:
Tip Sheet List - (check this link for more recent updates)
[ Community Advocacy & Legal Centre - a non-profit community legal clinic
serving low income residents of Hastings, Prince Edward and Lennox & Addington counties.]

Kudos to the Community Advocacy & Legal Centre for posting this valuable resource on their website.
A Bronx Cheer to the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services for NOT posting this valuable resource on its own website.

 

Ontario Non-Governmental Organizations and Municipalities - This Canadian Social Research Links page includes links to a few municipal governments' websites, but what you'll find there are mainly sites of social groups and networks - from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty to Workfare Watch. You'll also find a number of links to reports and studies on welfare and welfare reforms in Ontario produced by these groups or, in some cases, by municipal governments.

Ontario Government Links - On this Canadian Social Research Links page, you'll find links to the main Ontario government ministries and agencies in the field of social programs, and links to some annual reports, budgets and suchlike.

Another Look at Welfare Reform Autumn 1997 - an in-depth analysis by the National Council of Welfare of changes in Canadian welfare programs in the 1990s. The report focuses on the provincial and territorial reforms that preceded the repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan and those that followed the implementation of the Canada Health and Social Transfer.  Complete report online (PDF - 6.75MB, 134 pages) - large file, but well worth the wait for detailed information on welfare reforms in the 1990s in each Canadian jurisdiction, as well as a national overview of the broad issues of welfare reform and the setting for welfare reform in Canada Source : National Council of Welfare --- Version française: Un autre regard sur la réforme du bien-être social Source: Conseil national du bien-être social

Also from the National Council of Welfare:

Welfare Incomes 2006* fact sheets
on adequacy of welfare incomes

For the past 20 years, the National Council of Welfare has been producing the Welfare Incomes series, which are annual estimates of the incomes of individuals and families on welfare in each Canadian jurisdiction. In addition to an extensively-annotated table of welfare benefit levels for single clients (able-bodied and disabled) and families (one adult + one child and two adults + two children), the report includes information on prevailing welfare asset and income exemption levels in each province/territory, comparisons of welfare incomes over time and comparisons of current welfare incomes with various benchmarks.

The fact sheets which were recently posted to the Council's website include several variations and permutations of income measures used in Canada, such as Statistics Canada's before- and after-tax low income cut-offs, before- and after-tax average incomes and before- and after-tax median incomes. For the first time, the 2006 edition of Welfare Incomes includes a comparison of welfare incomes and the Market Basket Measure (see related links below).
[* NOTE : According to the Council's website, "The NCW plans to publish a 2006/2007 combined issue of Welfare Incomes at the end of 2008. In the meantime, all usual data will be available on our Web site."]

Source:
Welfare Income series - includes archives back to 1999
[ Council Research & Publications ]
[ National Council of Welfare ]
The National Council of Welfare (NCW) is an arm's length advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development on matters of concern to low-income Canadians.

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Welfare Incomes 2005 (PDF file - 1.4MB, 116 pages)
August 2006
"Welfare Incomes 2005 estimates total welfare incomes for four types of households in each province and territory, for a total of 52 scenarios. The four household types we use are a single employable person, a single person with a disability, a lone-parent with a 2-year-old child, and a two-parent family with two children aged 10 and 15. The National Council of Welfare has published similar estimates since 1986."

Staggering losses in welfare incomes (PDF file - 524K, 2 pages)
Press release
August 24, 2006

FACT SHEETS from Welfare Incomes 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Province and Territory, Peak Year and 2005
# Welfare Incomes by Household Type: Losses, Peak Year to 2005
# Welfare Incomes Over Time: 1986 to 2005 by Province and Territory
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Province and Territory and Type of Household
# Welfare Incomes 2005 by Type of Household and Province/Territory (graph)
# Adequacy of 2005 Welfare Incomes by Province
# The Clawback of the National Child Benefit Supplement
# Changes in Welfare Incomes for Families with Children, 1997 to 2005 (graph)
# Methodology Used for Welfare Incomes
# Number of People on Welfare, March 1995 to March 2005 (PDF file - 133K, 1 page)

Council Publications - includes links to earlier editions of Welfare Incomes, along with other reports produced by the National Council of Welfare, on welfare and other related topics