Like most persons with a disability, Connor receives a disability pension, know as ODSP--Ontario Disability Support Pension. this pension is fraught with irony. Unfortunately, irony is not something that people with disabilities are usually looking for in their lives. After all, the universe seems to have provided quite enough irony all ready provided in excess.
Firstly, the name: Disability Support Pension. since I am not retired, I do not know what and how much is involved in a pension. what I can tell you is that a Disability pension at most is $1073 per month. that is to cover housing, food and anything else you might need. considering how much apartments are these days, let alone accessible housing, I find it difficult to ascribe the word "support" to this pension. Additionally, if the disabled person chooses to (or is able to) find employment, their pension is "clawed back". that's right, the supportive government, takes back the support and penalises the person for working. yet, the pension is not enough to live above the poverty level.
It gets better! if the disabled person happens to work, every month they are expected to "report" their earnings. Now if you were able bodied and on Unemployment insurance or long term disability, you can do this on line. Not so if you are receiving ODSP. the person receiving ODSP, is expected to fill out, by hand, the form attached to their cheque and fax it to their local ODSP office, wherever that might be. If not, their pension will be put "on hold."
Oh I am not done! Consider that the average person who is receiving ODSP, is receiving it because......THEY ARE DISABLED!!!!!! Which means, as in the case of Connor, they are not able to write, fill in a form by hand, sign their names, program a fax machine (as if they could afford one on a 1000 per month) and feed said sheet of paper into the fax machine. Ironic hey?????
In Connor's case it is even more ironic (at this point feel free to insert the word asinine) Connor is a full time student at Carleton in his masters program. he has been awarded a teaching assistant position that he is paid for. According to ODSP's own rules and posted on their website, if a person is attending school full time, they do NOT have to have any of their earnings clawed back. Initially, it took a 20 minute phone call to explain to his worker the difference between undergraduate and graduate work. she thought that since he wasn't taking 5 courses he wasn't in school full time. even when I pointed out that she had a piece of paper sent from the school that confirmed his full time attendance and that students with disabilities were considered full time if they took a 70% load or higher, she still could not see her way clear to understanding that Connor was indeed a full time student.
After what can only be described as an extremely painful phone call, she did indeed see that he was full time and as such did not have to have his earnings clawed back. In my mind that should have been the end of the discussion and of the problem. However, I failed to factor in irony and its omnipresence in my life.
when the next month arrived, there was once again saying that Connor's pension was "on hold" due to his earning statement (the previously mentioned one that needs to be filled out and faxed) had not been sent. there must be some mistake I thought. after all, had I not cleared up that Connor was in school full time.
After another equally painful phone call with his worker, it turns out that even though they have proof of his full time attendance at school, with the requisite paper work and documentation of how much all this costs, they still expected that EVERY MONTH, a statement of earnings would be filed. I enquired that if, in this electronic day and age, could it not be done on line? oh no was the answer, after all, it might not be his worker picking up the mail and then it would not be processed.
there are physical bite marks in my tongue at this point.
I have many theories about why our world is so screwed up and what we need to do to change it. but this event says it like no other. NO ONE would expect the elderly, veteran, injured or any one else except the disabled community to put up with this nonsense. I know that there is much fraud in the system and there needs to be safety valves in place to protect the tax payer but I cannot believe that victimizing the most vulnerable members of our society and hobbling their ability to have a quality of life as good as they deserve is the way to go. this is not going to change until everyone speaks up and is aware that it exists.
There is enough irony in the lives of the special needs population, we do not have to pile more on. the universe has put enough in place.
