OCAP Statement on the Report of the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario

“Brighter Prospects” is the spin doctored title of the long anticipated report on social assistance prepared for the Liberal Government by Frances Lankin and Munir Sheihk. For some nine years, the Liberals have talked ‘poverty reduction’ while actually making people poorer and the release of this report is the crowning moment of this long process. As the Liberals prepare to intensify their agenda of social cutbacks and attacks on public sector workers, this report offers them three useful forms of assistance.

Firstly, just when their seemingly endless round of ‘consulting stakeholders’ on poverty and social assistance seemed to have run out of credibility, the Government is now handed yet another way to divert attention from the obvious fact that their declarations on alleviating poverty have been a sham. Now, they have yet another ‘bold and innovative blueprint’ that they must study and consider so as to prepare the ‘comprehensive and sweeping’ measures they have been meaning to get around to for nine years.

Secondly, there are some useful tidbits included in the report that offer the illusion that tiny shuffles in the right direction might be possible. There are, for example, recommendations on the amount of assets or earnings people on assistance may receive without having them clawed back. It is proposed that the pursuit of child support by those on assistance should be optional. An advisory group is called for that would look at benefit levels and develop a ‘Basic Measure of Adequacy’. It is suggested that single people on Ontario Works should have their income increased by $100 a month in the interim (although this would be paid for by eliminating the Special Diet and other ‘extras’ as social assistance benefits).

LIBERAL LEGACY OF ATTACKS ON THE POOR:

Of course, there is no reason to suppose that the Liberals are likely to act on the few modest improvements contained in the report. In fact, John Milloy as a response to growing pressure in communities, including in his riding in Kitchener, has already stated that the $100 increase is not an option because ‘the Province cannot afford it’. This year, benefit levels went up by less than the rate of inflation and even this only took place because, as a minority government, they had to abandon a complete rate freeze in order to negotiate the passage of their Budget. This, of course, included brutal cuts for people on social assistance particularly the elimination of the vital Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB). The cut to the CSUMB is perhaps one of the most blatant examples of how dreadful the policies of the Liberal government have been for poor people. It is a benefit that in reality means the difference between housing and homelessness for thousands of people in Ontario. It is often the only way women in poverty are able leave abusive situations and start-up somewhere safer. It is also the only way that people on assistance are able to buy the basic necessities like a bed and pots and pans.

From rabble.ca:

"Two days after Dalton McGuinty resigned as leader of the Ontario Liberal party and suspended the legislature, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) continued their campaign to stop the elimination of the Community Start-Up and Maintenance benefit (CSUMB).

In the last provincial budget, the Liberals announced that effective January 1, 2013, the CSUMB would be terminated and removed from Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

Read the whole story here!

Download the Community Start Up Application form here!

More photos after the break:

**To sign on to this letter as a union local or as a community service agency or organization, please email: raisetheratescampaign@gmail.com

October, 2012

Open Letter from Social Service and Front-line Community Workers on the Provincial Cut to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB)

In January 2013, as part of its austerity budget, the Ontario provincial government will cut 50% of funding to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit (CSUMB). The other half of CSUMB money will go to municipal housing and homelessness programs that serve an even larger pool of low-income people, and CSUMB as we know it will effectively be eliminated. As social service and frontline community workers, we are opposed to this mean-spirited cost-cutting measure and the adverse impact that it will have on the health and well-being of the individuals and communities that we work with.

The CSUMB has been available to Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients who are facing difficult crisis situations. This benefit has been used to: secure housing by people leaving shelters or hospitals; to pay rent arrears in order to avoid eviction; to pay utility arrears in order to avoid having your water or heat cut off during the freezing winter months; and purchasing basic household items such as a bed or mattress. Currently, some 16,000 people a month across Ontario rely on this vital benefit.

For frontline workers in the Violence Against Women (VAW) sector, the CSUMB has proved decisive in enabling women and their children to flee domestic violence situations and secure safe housing. Without access to this benefit, countless immigrants and refugees—many fleeing war, trauma and economically precarious conditions—would not be able to afford housing in Ontario upon arrival. For those individuals accessing drop-ins and shelters and struggling with extreme poverty, substandard housing and homelessness, mental and physical health disabilities, and addictions, the slashing of the CSUMB will certainly result in increased marginalization, homelessness, misery and hardship.

The provincial government’s slashing of the CSUMB, along with other recent measures like the cut to the Special Diet Allowance, is contributing to increased poverty and inequality in our communities, especially for social assistance recipients.

Stop the Cut to Community Start-Up, Raise the Rates Now!*
Schedule of Provincial Events Across Ontario (STARTING THIS THURSDAY IN KINGSTON!)

*The RAISE the RATES CAMPAIGN is endorsed provincially by a wide range of unions and organizations. To join and participate, please see here:
http://www.ocap.ca/node/947

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario, and allies across the province, are organizing a series of events this fall to demand that the McGuinty Liberals stop the cut to the Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefit, and Raise the Rates of Social Assistance.

Cuts by the governments of Mike Harris and Dalton McGuinty have reduced welfare rates by 60% since 1995! This year`s Provincial Budget continued the rapid decline with rates that don`t even keep up with inflation. Following the previous gutting of the vital Special Diet benefit by the Liberals, this year`s Budget also brought a series of cutbacks for people on social assistance including the elimination of a benefit known as `Community Start-Up and Maintenance` (CSUMB). The government has announced it will eliminate this benefit in January 2013.

UPDATE from August 23 Action to Stop The Closing of The School House Shelter!

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The City is determined to close down the 55 bed School House wet shelter on George Street. Already most of those staying there have been forced out and much needed shelter beds are sitting empty.

How can you fight back?

Rally, Free Meal And March To Save The School House: August 23rd (details below)

Community Meeting To Stop The Closing of The School House Shelter: August 16 (details below)

Local councillor, Kristyn Wong Tam, and fellow councillors on the Community and Recreation Committee, have led efforts to put a lock on the door of the School House shelter. They claim that this is not a cut and want us to believe that they will spend the money they save by closing School House on new ‘housing initiatives’. We know better. This is a huge cut to a vital service in the midst of a crisis - the waiting list for Toronto Housing is 10 years long, shelters are already overcrowded with tensions flaring up, and people's health and lives are on the line.

Closing School House is not about saving money or reallocating resources. The truth is that decisions like this are made to benefit rich developers who are moving in on the Downtown East neighborhood. First the shelters close and then the condos go up. This can’t be allowed to happen. We can’t lose this shelter and we have to fight for it to stay open. This is the place where we draw a line.

THE DEMANDS!

1) Reverse the Cuts, Raise the Rates!
In 1995 the Tory government cut welfare rates by 21.6 % and froze disability. Since the Liberals came to power in 2003, they have not only failed to reverse the Harris cuts, but have actually perpetuated a further decline in rates. As a result of that initial 21.6% cut coupled with inflation for the last 16 years, welfare rates are approximately 55% below where they should be. If benefit levels were restored to the same level of spending power as we had in 1994, a single person on Ontario Works would receive an immediate $904/month instead of the miserable $593 now being issued. No one can survive on these poverty rates; $593 cannot afford someone a place to live let alone food and basic needs.

The Liberal government has now announced that they are freezing the minimum wage in 2011. Workers trying to survive on minimum wage are already making poverty wages and will now see their incomes fall as a result of inflation and a freeze on wages. Currently there are approximately 1 in 6 workers or working at or close to minimum wage in Ontario, and the gap between minimum wage and welfare is greater now than it ever has been.

WE DEMAND an immediate increase in OW and ODSP rates to bring them back to pre-Harris levels. 55% NOW– raise the rates to where people can live with health and dignity!

WE DEMAND the minimum wage freeze be lifted immediately and that minimum wage be increased to a living wage for everyone in Ontario.

We are getting lots of calls in the office about the changes to the special diet. So, we broke it down for you. To find out the changes, including what diets are eliminated, reduced, increased or added, and when it is best for you to send in new forms, click here.

As little as $10 a month can help us maintain our work across this city and it just got easier to give.

For close to 20 years the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has been at the forefront of community based resistance to regressive social policy from all levels of government. We have helped inspire numerous groups across this country and continent, been studied in universities and college programs and most importantly we have time after time organized poor communities to stand up and take what’s theirs. To fight for their dignity and for justice.

Today we are engaged day to day in the fight against City Hall, Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill. Making sure that repairs are done in community housing, fighting for each and every entitlement on welfare and disability and working to win fundamental changes that will mean better housing, more to eat and better social programs.

All of this continues to be carried out on a shoestring budget. Year after year we scrape by on the generosity of our members and supporters, primarily by those who answer our emergency appeals for cash when we are on the brink of laying off staff or closing our office. Our monthly expenses are by no means outrageous. We pay our staff what we can, cover basic bills and operate a small office. Every month we are thousands of dollars short of covering our expenses.

Our goal is to change all of that by the end of this year. We are looking for all supporters of our work to pitch in and help support the struggle by becoming a part of our monthly sustainers program. Please only donate what you can. Five dollars helps. Ten dollars helps. And if you can afford to give more please do.

To become a monthly sustainer, send a void cheque with amount and which date of the month you'd prefer it to be processed to:

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
157 Carlton, # 206,
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2K3