A public sector union is taking the province to court to argue Ontario deliberately introduced a “flawed” welfare computer system that put the lives of vulnerable people at risk.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) filed an application Tuesday for an injunction with the Ontario Superior Court, urging it to order that the problem-plagued Social Assistance Management System (SAMS) “cease to be used . . . until the system can provide reliable, timely, accurate benefits to the recipients” of welfare and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) payments.

And that means going back to the older computer system, said the union.

“SAMS has introduced chaos into the ODSP and OW (Ontario Works) program,” OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas told reporters at Queen’s Park Wednesday.

Meanwhile, CUPE Ontario, which represents about 2,500 municipal social service workers, is also calling for the province to pull the plug on SAMS and revert to the prior computer system until “serious structural problems’’ with SAMS are resolved.

Technical problems with the new $240-million computer system caused havoc late last month when numerous welfare recipients received no money or as little as $5, while another 17,000 individuals and families were initially assigned $20 million in overpayments by SAMS.

The province says it acted quickly to stop most of that money from going out, and is moving to recoup what it says are about 90 remaining overpayments.

But both CUPE and OPSEU say the underpayments and overpayment problems are far worse than the government claims.

CUPE held a conference call with 500 of its members Tuesday night, many of them frontline Ontario Works case workers who complained about the continuing problems with SAMS.

For example, with the system in place before SAMS, in order to change a client’s address there was one field on the screen where the caseworker filled in that information, explained CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn.

“With this new system you have to visit five separate screens, and there are 40 different clicks or entries that you have to make as a worker to change somebody’s address,’’ Hahn added.

On the province’s claim there are 90 remaining overpayments, Hahn said that based on his discussions with his members the real number has to be “multiples of that.’’

“There’s no way it’s just 90’’ Hahn said.

“To date it is estimated that more than 36,000 Ontario families have been paid incorrect sums due to technical problems with the SAMS software,” Thomas said.

Initially calling it a glitch, Premier Kathleen Wynne eventually apologized in the legislature for the technical mess.

Thomas said the union “seeks a declaration that by knowingly implementing the flawed SAMS system, the Ministry of Community and Social Services violated the equality rights of social assistance recipients provided for under Section 15 of the Charter.”

Thomas said in the meantime his members are “scrambling” to see that social assistance recipients “are not forced to go without” this Christmas.

Community and Social Services Minister Helena Jaczek said the upcoming payments “remain on schedule.”

“December’s payments for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works remain on schedule. Additional oversight and validation steps have been taken, including early testing and review of the pay-run data to ensure payments remain on track,” Jaczek said in an email statement.

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The minister said she knows there have been problems.

“I understand that this has been a challenging experience for our front-line case workers and I want to continue to thank them for their ongoing efforts and patience. We share their dedication to helping their clients, and I know that they have been working hard so clients continue to be well served through the SAMS implementation process,” she said.

Jaczek noted her ministry has initiated the following measures to assist staff and municipal delivery partners:

A payment hotline, which Ontario Workers (welfare) staff can call to receive support for any specific functional issues they may be encountering.

An email address for access and login problems.

Job aids and troubleshooting guides.

Twice-daily communications updates.

Direct technical assistance help lines for ODSP staff.

The Liberal government and OPSEU are currently in contract negotiations, but Thomas said his union would have gone to court regardless.