The Ford government must end more than a year of uncertainty surrounding a proposed welfare change that could deny disability support to tens of thousands of people with cancer, lupus and mental illness, says a coalition of more than 80 health and social service groups.

And it should not use last week’s auditor general’s report to gut the program, says Defend Disability.

The auditor’s report questioned a 50-per-cent increase in the number of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipients over the past decade and a corresponding 75-per-cent jump in costs.

“We want the government to maintain the current definition of disability. They should not be changing it,” said Dr. Michaela Beder, a Toronto psychiatrist who treats people with severe mental illness who are living on ODSP.

“And we need to be looking at how to make sure people are receiving adequate amounts to live on and are being treated with respect and dignity, not at how to limit the number of people served,” added Beder, one of several coalition members who will be at Queen’s Park Tuesday on International Human Rights Day to highlight the issue.

“It just breaks my heart to see people who are already struggling significantly with their mental health to have the added stress of uncertainty based on what the government is saying,” she said. “If any change is going to happen, there needs to be transparent, open consultation with people who are directly impacted and with health providers and others who work with them.”

The coalition wrote a letter Oct. 2, urging the government to reverse its November 2018 proposal to narrow the definition of disability for ODSP to more closely align with guidelines used in federal programs such as Canada Pension Plan-Disability, or CPP-D. The province did not set out a timeline for the proposed change.

Anti-poverty and disability activists have opposed the move because the CPP-D definition doesn’t include people with temporary or episodic disabilities such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and some mental illnesses.

They worry the change would force thousands of ill and disabled people in the province to rely on Ontario Works (OW), a welfare program geared to employment with maximum benefits of just $733 a month for a single person.

The maximum basic needs and shelter benefit under ODSP for a single person is $1,169, or just over $14,000 a year. (Benefits under both programs fall significantly below Ontario’s poverty line of about $23,000 for a single person in 2017.)

Claude Wittmann, 55, who holds a PhD in molecular biology, has relied on ODSP since 2011. He says the uncertainty has taken a toll on both his physical and mental well-being and has caused digestive problems that have resulted in his weight dropping below 88 lbs. Wittmann is 5-foot-3-inches tall.

Wittmann says he became suicidal during his medical review for ODSP eligibility in 2017 — although suicidal thoughts are not part of his disability — and he fears for his life if his eligibility is put at risk again.

Ford government changes to post-secondary student fees are also threatening the viability of Wittmann’s part-time, seasonal employment as a bicycle mechanic at Bikechain, a student skills-sharing service at the University of Toronto.

“I don’t know if my job will be there in the spring,” he says.

“Under this government I am constantly on the threshold of losing my sense of existence,” Wittmann says. “It is a feeling of being erased. The possibility of losing your job, your home, your income security, family disappearing, friends struggling on their own. It’s constant erasure.”

Wittmann, who identifies as “other abled” due to the social and economic barriers he faces, says he has reclaimed the “disabled label” to fight for the equal treatment of people living with disabilities. He is currently collaborating with the coalition and others on a Toronto city council motion he hopes will put added pressure on the province.

If Wittmann loses his eligibility for ODSP, he’s not sure how he will pay his monthly rent and hydro costs of $850.

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“I meditate every day to fight the fear of becoming homeless ... because I am so afraid. This should not be our lives,” he says.

Todd Smith, minster for children, community and social services, replied to the coalition’s letter last month, but offered no assurances or commitment to consult.

“I appreciate your concerns about changes to the ODSP definition of a disability,” Smith wrote in the letter dated Nov. 14.

“We are listening and exploring the best ways to bring about positive outcomes for Ontarians in need, so we are taking the time to get this right,” he said about the government’s plans to create a simpler system that helps people “get their lives back on track.”

“Details are still to be determined and we will provide more information as decisions are made,” he said.

Beder said the coalition is “disappointed” Smith did not address the coalition’s concerns or “provide clarity on time lines for social assistance reforms.”

Last week, a group of advocates and people on social assistance from Hamilton visited Queen’s Park to urge MPPs to raise benefit rates which have never recovered from a 21.6 per cent cut to OW in the mid 1990s and a freeze to ODSP that lasted for almost a decade.

Alana Baltzer, 30, one of 4,000 people living in poverty who were part of the previous Liberal government’s basic income pilot project that was axed by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, said Ontario should learn from her experience.

Baltzer, who experienced extreme poverty and hunger as a child growing up with a single mother on welfare, developed depression as an adult that made it difficult to work and forced her to rely on ODSP. But after 18 months of receiving a basic income of $1,915 a month, Baltzer’s life “changed completely.”

“I got to feel dignity. I got to buy new clothing,” she said. That new clothing and confidence helped Baltzer land a full-time job at a local call centre this month where she earns about $27,000 a year before bonuses and incentive pay, she said.

“Going in to work, I feel 100-per-cent confident. And a lot of that comes from something as simple as having enough money to live,” she said. “And I thank the basic income for that.”

As a result, December’s ODSP cheque will be her last and after nine months on the job, Baltzer will be eligible for benefits, meaning she will be able to leave “the system” for good.

“This is what happens when people aren’t constantly worried about how they will pay their bills,” Baltzer says. “And when they are treated with dignity and respect.”

Almost 965,000 people rely on social assistance in Ontario.

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