As many as 500,000 social assistance tax forms had to be shredded and reprinted because of errors caused by Ontario’s troubled new welfare computer system, the Star has learned.

It is just the latest problem with the $242-million Social Assistance Management System (SAMS), which has been plagued with both very serious and minor glitches since it was launched in November.

More than 650,000 T5007s, known as T5s — which report an individual’s income from welfare and the Ontario Disability Support Program — were being printed last month when it was determined some of the documents in the run had errors.

“The initial T5 run had completed approximately 500,000 forms before we stopped the process to start again,” Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for Community and Social Services Helena Jaczek, confirmed, adding that taxpayers will pick up the $175,000 tab for the mistake.

“After this error was fixed, it was decided that restarting the T5 print run would be more efficient than manually pulling the incorrect T5s out of the initial print-run and then reprinting those separately. As is common practice regarding personal privacy protection, the initial print run was shredded,” she said.

Anderson explained this “particular error was a problem with how data converted from the old (computer) system was calculated on some T5s. The error resulted in the T5 showing an amount that would have either been too low or too high.”

However, a ministry source said it was linked to SAMS, an IBM product, which has difficulty connecting to a high speed laser printer. “They determined that either the amounts were wrong, or the formatting was wrong. Or both,” the source said.

The Liberals early last month launched an independent review of the problem-plagued computer system and decided to delay the rollout of a special benefit to help social assistance recipients’ transition to employment.

Tory critic MPP Bill Walker (Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound) pointed an accusatory finger at Jaczek.

“The situation is inexcusable and proves the minister is simply not up to the job,” Walker said in an email statement.

NDP critic MPP Monique Taylor (Hamilton Mountain) said hardly a day goes by that there isn’t another example of “how badly the Liberal government botched the rollout of the SAMS system.”

The same T5 printing run made headlines earlier this month for a privacy breach when the ministry mistakenly released private information belonging to hundreds of social assistance recipients in the province.

Social insurance numbers of more than 700 welfare and disability support program recipients were disclosed to third parties, along with the amount of assistance they received last year, the ministry acknowledged.

The seemingly endless list of ongoing problems with SAMS have proved a major headache for the province, and had significant impacts for social assistance clients, caseworkers, managers and municipal social service budgets.

The anxiety from working with SAMS was so acute in Waterloo region, for example, that in an unusual move counsellors were brought on site late last year for a few sessions. They were there to support over a dozen Ontario Works staff in the employment and income support division, who were having stress-related difficulties due to the software program.

“We’re talking about stress and frustration — the functionality of the (SAMS) system is such that we’ve had a number of staff actually sick because they are so frustrated and stressed by the use of the technology,’’ explained Douglas E. Bartholomew-Saunders, the commissioner of community services for the Region of Waterloo.

The counselling was provided for the workers through an employee assistance program (EAP) the region offers under a contract with an outside agency.

CUPE local 1883, which represents the workers, saw the problems and approached the region and asked about bringing in the employee assistance.

“This was really an intervention,” Bartholomew-Saunders explained in an interview this week.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Carrie Lynn Poole-Cotnam, a CUPE chairperson with the union representing the province’s Ontario Works employees, said Friday that typically there’s a cap on how many times workers can use the employee assistance program ‘per issue’ — such as a divorce, death, or money problems.

But employers across the province have been raising the cap for SAMS-related counselling sessions after getting numerous requests from staff, Poole-Cotnam said.

Anderson, the minister’s press secretary, said the ministry understands the “stress and frustration’’ some SAMS users are experiencing, and that’s why the third-party reviewer was called in to address the most pressing issues with the software system.