Hi ya Jennie ..... I've been on OW since last march ...
I get $420.00 to survive on it has gone up to $430.00 a month.
$400.00 of that goes to pay room and board,
but I get to spend the rest on tooth picks and water lol.
I am living with my ageing parents, who are not in very good shape by the way, so I'm soon to be homeless.
I have been looking for a new job since I can not work in the industrial area of jobs anymore ,
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis in my body which shuts down my hands anytime it wants.
So I'm looking in the home depot TSC stores clerk type work but it doesn't pay a lot.
As far as getting the politicians into this challenge good luck with that,
maybe at the same time you can make them all put on oven mitts, and make them do their daily job,
but they cannot take the mitts off or they are out of the challenge.
That is what Rheumatoid Arthritis is like for me when it is very bad.
When it is good I can get dressed in under 1 hour and hold a fork to eat.
I do get to go to the food back once a month,
which is not that good since the food runs out in a few days but at least I get food to eat.
I find it sad that the Government has been sitting on their hands,
and the funds for affordable housing to the tune of $200 million or so for the past few years.
I also find they ( Politicians ) can give them selves a 25 % raise,
and only give the people on OW a 2 % raise which is an extra $20.00 per month.
I want to know where the other 23 % is and why we never got it?.
Maybe you can ask them for me since they never answer me back.
Sorry but if this ever makes it into the papers maybe then the Government will get off their hands and do it right.
OW Campaign Supporter
(in response to the article in the KW Record on March 8, 2007)
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8 comments:
My question to you and to myself is how do they get away with the callous and unjust manner that workers approach their clients with, at Ontario Works, ODSP and even the Social Benefits Tribunal?
The answer is very simple. BECAUSE THEY CAN
For the record I would like to state, I have seen many improvements to the STB since a change of its Chair and I expect to see many more. I can’t say the same for Ontario Works and ODSP.
The research shows when clients have contact with workers the response is not always the same. You could ask three different workers the same question and receive three different answers.
If the worker doesn't especially like you, they will simply ignore you. This means things like no return phone calls, ignoring verbal requests for benefits, requesting more than usual documents be brought in to prove eligibility and so on.
If the worker really doesn't like you, they will often do everything in their power to harass, intimidate and frustrate you into giving up and going away. This means things like ignoring written requests for benefits, telling you that the benefit doesn’t exist, denying benefits when you are entitled and no decision letters and so on.
If the worker does like you, they will give you any of the benefits that you ask for if you entitled. This is only if the worker is aware of the benefits requested. Here is an interesting problem. The vast majority of the workers are not aware of benefits that are available. This even includes some of the excellent workers. Another problem is that the fast majority of clients don’t even know what the benefits are.
****All clients must document, tape record and video record everything, every time when dealing with any OW or ODSP staff.****
The governments must, as a gesture of good will, give all Ontario Works and ODSP clients a written copy of the benefits that they say clients are entitled.
This would be a first concrete step taken to start the process in eliminating poverty.
Ontario Works Directive # 31.0 found at http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/social/ow-directives/ow_policy_directives.htm or the:
Ontario Disability Support Program Directives #s 9.1 to 9.19 Found at http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/social/odsp-is-directives/ODSP_incomesupport.htm
The only real remedy to this problem is for clients to sue their respective governments. For Ontario Works it would be their local municipal government and the Province of Ontario and for ODSP it would be the Province of Ontario.
In the Ontario Works Act it states No personal liability
77.(1)No action or other proceeding in damages shall be instituted against the Ministry, the Director, a delivery agent, an officer or employee of any of them or anyone acting under their authority for any act done in good faith in the execution or intended execution of a duty or authority under this Act or for any alleged neglect or default in the execution in good faith of any duty or authority under this Act.
In the Ontario Disability Support Program it states No personal liability
58. (1) No action or other proceeding in damages shall be instituted against the Ministry, the Director or a delivery agent, an officer, employee of any of them or anyone acting under their authority for any act done in good faith in the execution or intended execution of a duty or authority under this Act or for any alleged neglect or default in the execution in good faith of any duty or authority under this Act. 1997, c. 25, Sched. B, s. 58 (1).
This means that a client could sue for damages if bad faith could be proven.
It is called bad faith; a person who intentionally tries to deceive or mislead another in order to gain some advantage.
It is called willful blindness or willful deceit.
The government must get rid of the discretionary powers it allows workers in the OW and OSSP, Act, Regulations and Directives. You’re either entitled to benefits or your not. It is extremely simple but the government will not do it until it gets sued for Bad Faith.
It’s so simple; all the government has to do is to look at how the federal government implements its Employment Insurance application process, and they are saving millions.
To receive benefits you must go online to apply, with exceptions for some disabled clients. You fill out a simple template and the next thing you experience is a cheque in the mail. If the federal government trusts us why can’t you?
Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario.
E-mail welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
Media Release
The Evidence Is In
Poverty’s Smoke and Mirrors, Part 2
To see part 1 http://www.special-need-child-canada.com/povertys-smoke-and-mirrors.html
The article above went out to the main media and approximately 65 other print news media starting September 21 2008. It was also put on the World Wide Web.
To my knowledge it was only printed in 3 Ontario news papers in the Letters to the Editor section.
1) Hamilton’s, Mountain News
2) Hamilton’s, Stoney Creek News
3) London’s, The London Free Press
Thank you to these three papers for caring enough about people that live in poverty to print this article.
As of today November 06 2008 the Ontario government has only posted old outdated directives dated Sept 2001.
http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/mcss/english/pillars/social/directives/ow_policy_directives.html
Obviously these directives are of no use to anyone simply because of the fact they are outdated and the ministry is now using the July 2008 up to date directives but has not shared them with the public.
You may remember Welfare Legal was so offended by this abuse we offered $100.00 to anyone that could produce a copy of the latest Ontario Works directive 7.4.
As of this date no one has collected the $100.00. Welfare Legal now has a copy of the new directives that the government has not shared.
We take the position that this is the most serious kind of abuse by our government to implement new policies but not allow those most in need to have access to them. The only reason the government has given for this abuse is that the Ontario Government has not prepared a French version of these directives.
This is a Human Rights violation, among others, to implement a secrete version of the directives and not share them with the public and not to have a French version available.
As we have stated before the Ontario government has in fact been cutting the benefits of Ontario Works, (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program, (ODSP) recipients without letting the general public aware of these cuts.
The latest cuts that have become public are the cuts to benefits to grandparents that are caring for their own grandchildren, who many had, have been apprehended by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). The grand parent’s complaints were heard loud and clear the government seems to have withdrawn these policy changes.
The new directive 7.4 and others shows more cuts that the public is not aware of yet.
One of these cuts shows that the Ontario government no longer supports volunteering here in Ontario. In the old outdated directives dated September 2001, the government used to give a small benefit to those recipients that had to do volunteer work as a condition of eligibility for OW. These cuts also affect those who wish to do volunteer work and are disabled on ODSP as well.
Are volunteers no longer needed here in Ontario?
These cuts which are ongoing, have been made to help pay for the meager increases to OW and ODSP of 2%. They are also part of the government’s bigger plan, to upload the cost of OW and ODSP from the municipality to the province and to pay for its poverty reduction strategy.
At the end of the day the government will save millions of dollars in benefits that the former Mike Harris Tories said people on OW and ODSP were entitled to. Does this make sense to anyone?
This story gets much, much worse. It turns out that the aboriginal community in Ontario had the foresight not to allow its members to be subjected to the policies and procedures put in place by the Mike Harris government, when they bought the draconian computer program from Anderson Consulting now Accenture. The cost of that program was $400,000.00 and rising. This program was designed to cut people off of benefits automatically, with no human contact. There seems to be 2 classes of people being governed differently here, and what are the costs?
It would seem they were allowed to have their own computer program made up by a private company called AD Morrison.
http://www.admorrison.com/
A private professional researcher contacted Welfare Legal in an attempt to collect the $100.00 offered for the latest Ontario Works directive 7.4 and alerted us to a Pandora’s Box. You will see on the home page of AD Morrison’s site there is a link to “Latest Directives”. This link contained a third set of OW directives that was not available to the general public.
After Welfare Legal contacted the ministry to see if this in fact was the latest and new directive 7.4, the ministry contacted us with a reply that had nothing to do with our request. Then out of the blue this link was taken of the site.
After gathering all the evidence we soon learned that the Ontario government had not been keeping these new directive from the public since July 2008, they had in fact been hiding them starting in December 2005 and no one new about it. At least no one that has come forward so far.
There has been no response from any legal clinic or private paralegal in Ontario showing that they new about this breach of the Human Rights Code by our provincial government. If anyone was aware of this why didn’t they take it to the media? Does nobody care about this abuse? Does nobody care about eliminating poverty?
It is interesting to note that the government has even changed the directive numbers to confuse us even more once we were allowed to become aware of them.
September 2001 shows directive 31.0, the out dated benefits that we all are aware of.
December 2005 shows
7.3 is EMPLOYMENT AND PARTICIPATION BENEFITS
7.4 is COMMUNITY START UP AND MAINTENANCE BENEFIT
July 2008 shows
7.4 is EMPLOYMENT AND PARTICIPATION BENEFITS
7.5 is COMMUNITY START UP AND MAINTENANCE BENEFIT
For a copy of these directives
http://owcorruption.blogspot.com/
How can the Ontario government say it is attempting to alleviate poverty when it is secretly cutting the benefits of those most in need? (Reverse Robin Hood)
Ron Payne
Welfare Legal
Hamilton, Ontario
Phone 905-253-0205
E-mail welfarelegal2004@hotmail.com
Blog http://welfarelegal.blogspot.com/
I am facing alot of this myself. Workers and supervisor seem to not know what changes are being made in their own field of work.
In the last year my frustration level with Ontario works has gone way beyond something I can handle on my own and I feel the only people out there I can approach for help are individuals in league with or on the payroll. There are no community groups here in Ottawa like they have in Toronto that will stand with you and fight for your rights like OCAP in Toronto.
I am a student trying to achieve my nursing certificates and actually qualify for the last bridging program offered. Unfortunately I can get NO help from OW. I work as a PSW and have three children and a husband who works on call with a placement agency. There is tons of new stuff to help that was put out by the new government but NOBODY in the system knows about them. I have spent the year fighting for my right to get my butt off OW with no help. I am tired and frustrated and I am starting to think I should just give up cause no one even cares. It is sad . By the time I fight to get help opportunities are gone and then I'm looked at like a bum who is not trying. The more I fight the worse I get treated. It is just a bad cycle that nobody acres about so why try anymore?
And now they've cut the "special diet" allowance.
certian people make things suck
i am so up set anyone else just email me i will listen to your story
bradmurfin@hotmail.com
That's funny cause i was on OW & NOW I MAKE 15,000 then i did before & i'm now off OW. You just have to look at where ya can work the longest without getting laid off & go for that occupation. I went forklifting cause someone has to load & unload trailers.
Do you think I could go on ODSP because to me working at for some shit corporation or any job I do not not enjoy doing is financial entrapment or a form of social enslavement.The realization that I'm am a slave owned by my country is disabling mentaly and physicaly it also makes me very depressed and hurt in side. So the question is am I just a weak person? Or just to smart for my own good. I'm sure most people will respond to my post like I'm some lazy person but I assure you thats not the problem. I would be more then willing to make money doing something that I loved to do!!. But hell if I', going to go into debt to goto school at 30 years of age. "In a wolrd where insanity becomes the norm whats left for the sane?"
Ontario Works is a total joke. They had a meeting today in my building and I was the only one there along with 5 reps from them. With that I don't think i need to hear what they have to say. This program is just another joke set up by politicians to state in short that they are helping. Helping who? Themselves maybe but certainly not the people of Ontario.
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