Posts Tagged ‘disabilities’

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With disability benefits, governments cannot get lost in complexity

Friday, May 31st, 2024

The purpose of the CDB is to protect people with disabilities from poverty. The application process should strive to make it easy to identify the people who need this protection… Developing this new benefit will no doubt raise difficult questions about definitions of disability, jurisdiction, and how different programs interact with each other… But they are not impossible. They are not an excuse for doing nothing.

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Here’s how Ontarians on ODSP are trying to make ends meet

Sunday, May 19th, 2024

… the low social-assistance rates in Ontario… are forcing recipients to earn money however they can. Living in what disability activists frequently refer to as “legislated poverty,” these recipients often drain their savings, borrow money from friends and family, or even consider taking their own lives… Programs like the recently unveiled Canada Disability Benefit, or even the Ontario government’s decision to index ODSP to inflation, not only don’t keep pace with the past few years of inflation — they barely address decades of stagnant earnings.

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Canada disability benefit severely underfunded in Budget 2024 and Canadians with disabilities will pay the price

Thursday, April 25th, 2024

One-in-seven people who access food banks nationally rely on provincial disability income support. In many provinces, that means living more than $800 below the poverty line each month… it was never about seeing just another income support program come into effect. It was about extending the type of tangible support to Canadians with disabilities living in severe poverty, helping them overcome its relentless cycle.

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‘Aspirations are not going to lift people out of poverty’: Ontario disability advocates react to the federal budget

Friday, April 19th, 2024

… the feds have placed primary responsibility for funding disability-related social assistance firmly back in the province’s court. The budget calls out “the inadequacy of disability assistance provided by many provinces,” while saying that the federal government “aspires to see the combined amount of federal and provincial … income supports for persons with disabilities grow to the level of Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).”

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Seniors’ Care Surge will require Smart Policies

Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Among the key recommendations: (i) provinces should invest in public home and community care while also considering mechanisms to expand the private provision of these services; (ii) Ontario and other provinces should consider providing a refundable tax credit for senior renters to access retirement homes and supportive services and; (iii) current capacity and fiscal constraints mean that expanding both publicly and privately funded options will be necessary. 

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Ontario Budget 2024 should advance the right to an adequate standard of living

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

To advance the right to an adequate standard of living, Ontario’s Budget 2024 should bolster social assistance, help low-income workers, support rental housing, and work productively with other orders of government to achieve these goals… the government must address the systems acting counter to this goal — social assistance, employment-related supports, and housing services.  

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How should the new Canada Disability Benefit interact with existing disability supports?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024

For the new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) to meet its goal of financially supporting and reducing poverty of people with disabilities, it will need to supplement existing supports rather than causing them to be clawed back. This policy brief analyzes how the new CDB should interact with provincial/territorial social assistance programs and the federal Canada Pension Plan disability benefit (CPP-D).

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Can Ontario Fix the Shortage of Personal Support Workers?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024

The Ontario government earmarked almost $5 billion in funding over four years to help long-term care homes hire and retain care staff. It’s since added additional millions in incentives to attract thousands to become personal support workers over the next few years… Podcast video Episode: Can New Incentives Help Attract PSWs in Ontario?

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Ontario has an accessibility crisis. It’s time Queen’s Park acted with urgency

Thursday, January 4th, 2024

First, avoid gathering any data that might indicate the scope of the problem, as well as how to solve it. Second, don’t put anyone in charge of remedying the problem. Finally, avoid employing any enforcement mechanism, so no one’s ever held responsible for failing to do anything. That… is precisely what the province has been doing for the past 17 years. The review, which is mandated by the act, found that more than three quarters of the province’s 2.9 million people with disabilities (PWD) reported negative experiences.

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Toronto is getting a fourth emergency service. That’s vital for helping people in crisis

Wednesday, November 29th, 2023

The service, which offers a non-police, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises… will soon cover the entire city… Police are, after all, not trained mental health professionals, and police involvement has all too often ended in tragedy. In contrast, 93 per cent of the crisis calls were successfully completed, and 95 per cent of people served by crisis teams said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.

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