An unprecedented coalition of more than 80 Ontario health care and social service organizations is urging the Ford government to reverse a proposed welfare change that could deny disability support to tens of thousands of people with cancer, HIV and mental illness.

“Changing the definition of disability could compromise the health of people across the province and negatively impact overall well-being,” they say in a letter sent Wednesday to Todd Smith, minister of children, community and social services.

Dr. Gary Bloch, a member of Health Providers Against Poverty, which regularly advocates for low-income patients, said it is unusual for apolitical groups such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the Ontario Psychiatric Association to raise the alarm.

“These are organizations that I have not seen sign a letter like this in the past,” he said. “To me it is a sign that there is real anxiety around this proposed change.”

Former minister Lisa MacLeod announced last November that the Ford government would be narrowing the definition of disability for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) to more closely align with guidelines used in federal programs such as Canada Pension Plan-Disability, or CPP-D.

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, lupus 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 program geared to employment with maximum benefits of just $733 a month.

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.)

“Restrictive reforms limiting access to ODSP will push very poor people with disabilities into deeper poverty, increase stress, lead to worse health outcomes and possible homelessness,” says the coalition.

Although MacLeod said people currently receiving ODSP would be “grand-parented” into the new program, that assurance has not been clarified or confirmed, the letter adds.

Ministry staff held invitation-only consultations last spring with individuals and groups serving people with disabilities.

“But no one has heard anything since then,” said Bloch, whose downtown practice includes many low-income people living on social assistance.

“It’s just completely insensitive and out of touch with the lived realities of people living in poverty and what they have to face,” he said. “Many (living in poverty) are acutely aware of what is being talked about for these programs and have been left hanging.”

The uncertainty grew last week when the Star reported the province directed municipal welfare offices “to destroy” more than 240,000 inserts to October’s OW cheques outlining previously announced cuts. (Almost 380,000 inserts to ODSP cheques, overseen by provincial welfare offices, were also never sent last week.)

A spokesperson for the minister said the government has not yet received the letter.

“We are constantly reviewing government programs, with a focus on improved delivery and better outcomes for all,” said Christine Wood.

Judy Cong, 51, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2002, a year after she immigrated to Canada from China with her husband and young son, says she doesn’t know how she would have survived without ODSP.

It helped after her surgery in 2003 and also supported her husband, who had to quit his job for several months to care for her.

The benefits continued as Cong retrained as a baker and when a job in a bakery proved too physically taxing due to permanent damage from her surgery and treatment.

ODSP continued to support her family when the tumour returned in 2012 and during another surgery in 2013. Her monthly cheques shrunk to less than $400 due to her husband’s rising income, but she was grateful for the support as it still covered her ongoing medical expenses.

In 2016, as Cong continued to recover, she found part-time work as financial administrator for the Out of This World Café, a social enterprise that provides jobs to people with mental health issues. It’s a job she loves. And with her recent raise to $20 an hour, she will be earning about $1,000 a month, after taxes.

“ODSP has been a lifeline that has really helped us through my illness,” she says.

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“I really don’t know how we would have managed without it,” adds the mother of a 25-year-old son who has just graduated from university and on his own, working full-time.

“I am able to work now, but I still struggle,” she says. “Because the tumour is next to the brain stem, they weren’t able to remove all of it. I get a scan every year to see if it is growing again.”

Although her husband’s earnings are increasing, his income is not enough to pull the couple out of poverty.

Under the current system, her part-time job and pay raise, combined with her husband’s earnings, mean Cong still receives about $200 a month from ODSP. She says it helps the couple pay rent and buy more nutritious food.

Ben Ward, 42, was a bartender in Toronto’s gay village and studying to become an American Sign Language interpreter when he fell ill with testicular cancer in 2003. He was 26.

He recovered, but three years later, at age 29, he was hospitalized for almost two months with tuberculosis and was later diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. He says he was told to call his relatives because “I was dying.”

Ward pulled through again and this time, social workers suggested he apply for ODSP. But his illnesses had taken a toll. He spent eight months in downtown homeless shelters before staff helped him find an apartment near Danforth Ave. and Main St. where he lived for 10 years with the help of a city shelter allowance.

“I started to get my life back together,” he says. “I got a few restaurant jobs and seasonal work. I started a nursing program at George Brown College, but I couldn’t afford to finish it.” Instead, he switched to the City Adult Learning Centre, run by the Toronto District School Board, where he studied for free for his Personal Support Worker (PSW) certificate.

In January 2017, on the day he turned 40 and graduated as a PSW — and 11 years after he applied for subsidized housing — Ward was offered a spacious bachelor co-op apartment at the corner of Alexander and Church Sts. His monthly rent dropped from $900 to about $200, including hydro.

Between volunteering in his community and offering free personal support for aging residents in his co-op, Ward has continued to work part-time and contract positions for various non-profits serving the city’s marginalized.

“As someone with HIV who has experienced homelessness and the system, this work is very meaningful for me,” he says.

Ward has also worked on and off in local restaurants where he has earned between $200 and $1,200 a month. But shift work and late hours are taxing for someone with HIV whose health is fragile and who is often ill, he says.

Proposed changes to the way the province calculates rent in subsidized housing, combined with annual reporting will help Ward. But if he loses his ODSP status and is forced to rely on Ontario Works, “it will mean more hardship in terms of getting essentials that you need. Food, clothing. To be honest, I don’t know how anyone lives off OW.”

Another thing he worries about is the cost of his medication. His HIV drugs cost $1,700 a month and are currently covered by ODSP.

“If my rent was still $900 and I was put on OW, what would I do?” he asks. “I don’t even know what I would do ... I am not working for lack of trying, that’s for sure.”

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