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.
Copy will be sent to the following:
Hon. Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy
Minister of Finance, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, MPP
Hon. Merrilee Fullerton
Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, MPP
Hon. Sylvia Jones
Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, MPP
Peter Tabuns
NDP interim leader of the official opposition, MPP
Catherine Fife
NDP finance and treasury board critic, MPP
Monique Taylor
NDP critic for children, community and social services, MPP
France Gélinas
NDP health critic, MPP
Lise Vaugeois
NDP critic for seniors, persons living with disabilities and accessibility