Working Part-Time, Operating a Business Under Ontario Disability Support Program Guidelines. Louis Shalako.

Okay, so I have a small publishing business, and I also work for someone else part-time.

I’ve been on the Ontario Disability Support Program for over twenty years.

I called my social worker and asked a few questions.

I asked about the Work-Related Benefit, the Business Start-Up Benefit, and other questions.

But here's an interesting question that I didn't ask. If you can only get the Work-Related Benefit after earning $100 in a month, and if you don't go over the income limit, what effect does it have to have expense deductions...??? If you're below the limit, you don't need the deduction. You need to get up the max level, (which I take to be $200), and only then claim an expense, in order to offset their fifty cents on the dollar claw-back for everything over the limit. Right? And you are allowed deductions, after all.

But. It seems to me, if you don't need the deduction, don't claim it—bearing in mind you might make a lot of money just before the end of the year. This is more of a question than a statement.

I'm being told they go through a year's worth of reports and then adjust the next year's income. And you can only claim an expense during the month you made the purchase. Yet at some point in the process, they must average the total on a monthly basis. If you made more than $2,400 in a year, with no deductions, they want fifty cents on the dollar.

Is it that simple?

If you're on disability, the odds are you aren't sophisticated enough to pick off those sorts of questions. Let alone figure out what's the best thing to do. And sometimes your social worker doesn't know either.

One wonders if they deduct a $100 expense against $50 income in a given month, and then what? Use the negative integer in determining the monthly average of the yearly income...??? In which case you’re a lot less likely to qualify for the $100 Work-Related Benefit.

No one tells you this, they let you flounder around on your own. And it's a lot to remember anyways. We don't even know what questions to ask, sometimes.

Now, a few people over the years have said the ODSP 'helped someone buy a house.'

According to the social worker, they do not. It’s funny how people insist that they are right, to the extent of getting angry if you contradict them—even in the light of facts supplied by ODSP staff.

The only circumstances that they could be talking about would be an inheritance, a big gift, a lottery win, or a big windfall of some sort. Theoretically, you could put a down payment on a house, and they won't hit you with an over-payment by saying that it's income. Theoretically, someone could also give you a house, and it’s not considered, ‘income.’ But that is my interpretation—I didn’t actually ask that question.

As for the Business Start-Up Benefit, that is only if I start up something new—as of now that's not true. I started working for someone else, part-time, last June.

As for the internet, we agree it is vital for the publishing side, and for my labour side one must presume, as I blog and take photos for a customer and all of that. I doubt if the phone will be apportioned, but you never know. Yet some portion of that is definitely used for business. When you consider how few personal calls I get, I would say the majority of it.

You're only going to get so much out of five or six minutes on the phone.

I also think it would be pretty easy to get discouraged, to lose part of your income or other benefits unnecessarily, and ultimately to say, ‘to hell with it—it’s just not worth it.’ And yet the ODSP and the government cheerfully admit that the disabled have the right to work.

In fact, they even encourage it to some extent, judging by the slick radio ads.

***

The ODSP is unlikely to give much more than a one or two percent raise per year, (which is actually below the level of inflation and represents a yearly net loss of income), and nothing if the Conservatives win election, for the duration of their mandate.

In future, it would be beneficial to peg annual increases to the level of inflation, or two or three percent, whichever is more.

Bearing in mind not everyone would be able to benefit from these changes, the best thing the ODSP could do would be to raise the allowable earnings limit, and also raise the mileage rate from $0.18 to something more in line with industry standard. Some of the other guidelines are pretty murky, which must be a pain for staff as much as for the client.

Also, income support decisions can be appealed and must be provided in writing, along with instructions on how to ask for an internal review, and ultimately an appeal. Yet it is unclear whether decisions to withhold some other benefits can be appealed. I couldn't find anything on that on the website, nothing really clear anyways. The thing is, there's not much point in appealing if there's no way to win. Getting in the face of the staff isn't helpful as they're not the ones who wrote the guidelines. They're as hamstrung by guidelines as the client is.

#ODSP

Louis Shalako books and stories are available from Amazon.

Photo Credit.


Thank you for reading.

Why the Disabled Must Destroy the Government.

It's not easy oppressing the disabled. But
somehow they manage. Canadian Film Centre.

Louis Shalako

If you are a disabled person living in Ontario, you have probably asked yourself the following question.

“How am I ever going to destroy the government of this formerly-fine province?”

The question is a pretty rational one. After all, they plan on destroying you. They’ve been chipping away at you since the day they took office, and the fact is the Conservatives were worse.

Much worse.

Right?

And if you have even half a brain, (and I sure know I do,) then you must also have asked yourself what would happen if you, or better yet, we, succeeded in this fine and noble goal.

The problem is a simple one. If the disabled manage to defeat the Liberals, the Progressive Conservatives seem the most likely winners. The NDP would form the opposition and the Liberals would go back to their natural state, i.e. a rump.

There are reasons for this. Not the least of which is that disabled people alone can’t determine the result of the provincial election, which must be held by Oct. 1/2014. There aren’t quite enough of us, although we get plenty of new recruits every day. Our numbers are growing, ladies and gentlemen. The Star is hinting at a spring election, a bit of a no-brainer for a party which has little going for it except empty rhetoric and a long list of broken promises and failed initiatives. Oh, sorry—they do have a few scandals.

When they warn of a minority government, that’s scare tactics—they’re holding the Conservatives over your heads.

In order to do that, the Liberals first had to stand on your throats.

Don’t forget that part.

The facts are simple and undeniable.

We need the help of other Ontario residents to do it. They have their own concerns, but this writer has never doubted that they sympathize.

Let’s hope they’re mad enough to consider some healthy alternatives.

One of the challenges faced by the New Democratic Party is the reputation, a rather unfair one as it turns out, of Mister Robert Rae, former Premier of Ontario during the years 1990-95. Robert and the NDP swept to power, as things generally go. They were young, and brash, (which I have always admired in a man,) and inexperienced. They were riding a wave of popularity and a general optimism all across the vast province that we lived in once but now we merely endure.

The NDP does have a social agenda. It’s a much more positive one than is popular these days. It’s much more optimistic.

Understandably enough, in the early1990s, the provincial NDP government set out to change the world. I have to give them a lot of credit for that, but of course they never foresaw the big recession that hit shortly thereafter. It’s a funny thing about global recessions. The experts, the economists, the irrational monetary theorists of the world, never see them coming. It is only in the hindsight of revelation that we realize they somehow made out like bandits, while all of the rest of us were suffering…struggling to keep a roof over the heads and food in the bellies of our children.

But I digress, ladies and gentlemen.

I say the reputation is a bit unfair because Robert had a sweeping vision for social change. At least at that time. Such things indeed cost money, and the media, some of which is owned by former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, (Sun Media, etc.) has taken some time and trouble to smear him over the last twenty-five years as a ‘tax-and-spend’ Premier. It doesn’t cost a Conservative much to slam a former NDP Premier, (he probably enjoys it, both men in fact) and in fact we all know Mr. Rae joined the federal Liberals as a leadership hopeful.

If nothing else, the gentleman has leadership qualities.

I’ll talk later on, about why I think the Federal HST, 13 % on most purchases here in Canada, is inflationary.

The provincial Liberals have taken a provincial budget that was $68 billion or so annually, and bloated it, so that it has now almost doubled over their tenure. It’s a relatively short period of time to wield such magic, but then they are special, aren’t they? They’ve also managed to run up quite the deficit.

The former Premier and two of his top aides, narrowly avoiding criminal charges, at least so far, have been thoroughly discredited. No one wants to forget them more than the surviving Liberals themselves.

I would suggest that you remember their names, they are Dalton ‘Snake’ McGuinty, Dwight ‘The Doughnut’ Duncan and then of course there’s that other Fat Bastard.

There are 700,000 known disabled in the province of Ontario. If you are disabled, or if you know someone who is disabled and eligible to vote, it is incumbent upon you to get registered to vote; or help them to get registered to vote. It is important to be proactive.

Don’t wait for them to come to you. I haven’t been enumerated in years. The buzzer doesn’t work on this building, and I’ve moved five times in the few years. They don’t really care if we show up or not. In fact, they hope that we won’t.

They sure as hell ain’t gonna come lookin’ for me.

That’s because they know we have exactly zero reasons to vote for either the Liberals or the Conservatives.

Who can forget Mike Harris, Ernie Eves, and oh, yes, Mister Jim Flaherty, presently federal Minister of Finance, the man who continually lied about the bank bailout and the true state of this nation’s economy. 

In fact the man is still doing it. Take a look at that face, ladies and gentlemen.

Either a liar or mistaken much of the time.
(Joshua Sherurcij. Wiki.)

This is your enemy.

But he is only one of the enemies of the disabled.

What we need to do, in our inclusive little alliance, is to make damned sure we all vote the same way.

Pick one. But only one.

Let’s vote NDP. I have no idea of what their platform ultimately will be. But then, I don’t much care, either.

I guess you could call it a measure of my desperation—and I still don’t really care.

We might call this attitude one of political nihilism.

What that means is if we can keep the Liberals and the Conservatives out, after that, I don’t much care what happens.

That’s because both the Liberals and the Conservatives have made our lives a lot more miserable than they really had to be.

And I’m real tired of being punished by people who morally aren’t particularly all that well suited to pick up dog turds in the backyards of their own mansions. (Not that aforesaid individuals don’t pay servants to walk aforesaid dogs in public parks. After all, it saves on the landscaping, and lush green lawns say it all, don’t they.)

I say, we, the people of Ontario, have no choice whatsoever, but to pitch the Liberals out, and for all intents and purposes, chuck the damned Conservatives out too. And keep them out.

We know who they are.

For some reason we are not welcome in their little society.

***

Let’s take a chance. The Conservatives are little too vicious for our liking, the Liberals a little too expensive and shifty-eyed.

There’s not much point in voting for the Green Party. Their economic platform looks like Sarah Palin got together with Kim-Dumb-Son and Fox News and put a few speaking points together for an audience of (barely) tame chimpanzees.

There are critics who say the NDP are ‘socialists.’ It’s absolutely true.

Socialism is all of us, working together for the common good.

Democracy is the most benevolent and least invasive form of socialism that has ever been tried.

That’s why they called it ‘democracy.’

Some people see that as a negative point, but I kind of like it, myself.

One of the really great things about the NDP is that they actually have a chance of winning, unlike the Green Party, who won’t poll one percent of the popular vote. The fact they are currently listed at six percent shows just how accurate polling really is.

The NDP can win this one.

But even more importantly, the interest groups, the pressure groups, lobby the NDP much less than the government, and of course the Tories are the biggest lobbyists of all. It’s what they do when they need to moonlight and make a few extra million bucks.

Of course the insurance industry, the chemical industry, the power generation industry, they lobby those who they think will first and foremost win, and those who will be amenable to suggestion, ladies and gentlemen.

They are of course looking for like-minded individuals, whoever is leaving the biggest slime trail, no matter to them, if those individuals are good for nothing and hard on food.

***

Here is an unpalatable truth.

The government can’t raise the ODSP subsistence rates. Do you know why?

Because then Ontario’s disabled would actually have a better lifestyle than someone working forty hours a week, for the $10.25 minimum wage. That’s because wage earners pay taxes. They pay OHIP and WSIB contributions, they get deductions for Canada Pension—did you know Kathleen Wynne wants to bring in a provincial pension plan? She’s got an eleven-buck an hour minimum wage?

Do you think she knows exactly where the poverty line actually is?

Sure she does. She wants to keep them minimum-wage earners hungry—otherwise they’d be tempted to book off and take the kid to the dentist.

The disabled have medical, drug and eyeglasses, the most basic dental care benefits. Imagine making eleven bucks an hour, part-time, and your kid gets a toothache. That’s going to cost you.

What if the kid needs glasses?

You will always be struggling. And most minimum-wage workers don’t even get forty hours a week.

***

Yeah, but what are the odds the Liberals could ever keep their hands off of a provincial pension plan? 

Especially if there was any kind of surplus. What are the odds that if the Conservatives came to power, they would scrap it, and, keep all the money? It’s not like they could ever give it back. They would be claiming to pay down the debt or something and, oh, how fast it would all evaporate, eh? Imagine the tax breaks they could cut their buddies. That would dissipate quick, wouldn’t it? They wouldn’t even have the grace to use smoke and mirrors. With them it’s all justification, nothing more. It’s all ideology with them guys. They’ve never had an actual, original thought, in their entire lives.

Who knows, maybe some Conservative cronies would find themselves in the rather enviable position of being paid a couple of hundred million for a power plant they didn’t actually have to build.

Alas, so far, it’s only been the Liberal cronies doing that. And of course the disabled get to pay for it with their grubby little hides, which come remarkably cheap to this government.

My spin on this is that we need to boot these highly-esteemed, good-for-nothing-individuals out, have done with it, and at last, finally, have a chance to move on with our lives.

I, for one, would like to take my life in a slightly different direction than the good old ODSP’s rather limited vision.

‘Cause we all know how that works out in practice.

The NDP would have a growing economy to look forward to in their early years of power, for surely Mister Flaherty is optimistic about the future.

You remember, he’s a federal Conservative.

The sort of people who make hay out of other folks’ catastrophes.

***

Okay, I know you’re all asking, so Louis?

Why is the 13 % HST inflationary?

When guys like the beetle-browed, semi-economist, the Right Honourable, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, would hotly deny it.

Because if it was removed, what would happen?

Canadians would have thirteen percent more money to spend on food, shelter, clothing, transportation, fuel, rent…mortgage payments...lots of good things, really.

Your dollar would be worth that much more in an instant. That would be, in classic economic terms, ‘deflation.’ And the opposite of deflation, is…wait for it…inflation.

To artificially jack the price of goods for no real reason, surely this is the worst kind of inflation.

I say that because they’ve never really managed to pay down that nasty old deficit, have they?

It only gets bigger. And Mr. Harper is harping on rearmament. I guess we can thank Putin, a slightly more extreme case of conservatism, for that.

It’s only a matter of degree, separating the two men, ideologically, ladies and gentlemen. One is a little more extreme than the other, that’s all.

Putin is the arch-conservative, so much so the Tea Party in the U.S. sort of idolizes him

***

Inflation wipes out corporate debt, destroys the life savings of the middle class—who are now on the hook for paying off all of that corporate debt for them, and of course it makes the lives of the poor intolerable.

That’s why they do it, ladies and gentlemen.

Even Paul Krugman, the noted (Nobel Prize-winning) economist has called for a sustained period of ‘moderate’ inflation. What that does is make all pensions and fixed incomes smaller.

Every year, your disability pension is worth less and less. The government knows that very well.

How much longer do you figure you can stand it?

***

Inflation is when it takes more dollars to buy the same thing.

It goes like this: what once cost $1.00 now costs $1.13.

That is inflation, ladies and gentlemen, and that is also all of our time for today.

Oh, poo, I almost forgot—that is also the sound of the good old Minister of Finance being caught out in another mistake, Mister Flaherty.

‘Cause if it’s not a mistake then it must be a lie.

You read it here first, ladies and gentlemen.

END

Note. I was a bit surprised to see the poverty line pegged at something over $23,000 U.S. in one of the supporting links in this Mother Jones article, where some of the most common myths about poverty are explored and de-bunked. A single person on ODSP here in Ontario is living on about $12,600 a year CDN. 

And there are people out there in the world who can justify that. Kathleen Wynne is just one of them.

Here’s the recent poop on party desertion, the humbling but necessary support of the NDP for this government and its budget to survive, and some other neat stuff. (The Toronto Star.)