Action Alert: Double ODSP rates to lift people out of poverty

Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) rates have been frozen since 2018. People with disabilities who rely on ODSP — and their families — are falling deeper into poverty as we experience the steepest inflation in decades.

Join us! Call on Premier Ford to double ODSP rates. 

Today’s ODSP rate for singles — only $1,169 per month — is approximately 50 per cent below the poverty line and almost entirely swallowed up by the average rate for a bachelor apartment in Ontario ($1,106). In Toronto, the average rent for a bachelor apartment — $1,217 — is almost $50 more than the ODSP rate for a single recipient.

Ontario’s ODSP rates have lost nearly 33 per cent of their purchasing value over the last three decades, and over 10 per cent of their value since they were frozen in 2018.

Current ODSP rates force people with disabilities into precarious housing or homelessness, malnutrition, poor health and desperation. This is profoundly cruel in a province as rich as Ontario. It must change, immediately.

Join us! Let Premier Ford know that ODSP rates must double to ensure that no one in Ontario with a disability is forced to live in poverty.